


Camp Cantabile

by hanwritesstuff (hannahkannao)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Orchestra, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, F/F, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Multi, cute stand partner friendships, not really it's more of a chamber music au but there's an orchestra
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-06-05 18:33:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 47,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6716380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannahkannao/pseuds/hanwritesstuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their first violinist just wants this to be over so he can get to orchestra rehearsal and be another face in the section.</p><p>Their second violinist is brand new, well-rehearsed, and ready to succeed.</p><p>Their violist wants to be heard but doesn't want to stand out.</p><p>Their cellist is only here because his teacher said he needed chamber music experience.</p><p>Their ragtag string quartet has three weeks to make something beautiful, no matter what that something is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In which I take the phrase "write what you know" to heart and get obsessed over my two favorite things in the world: Haikyuu!! and chamber music.
> 
> Because there are a lot of ships included here, the most important ones are Kagehina, Tsukkiyama, Daisuga, Iwaoi, Levyaku, and Ushiten. (Kuroken/Matsuhana/Kyouhaba/Semishira have moments but they're not as big so just a warning)
> 
> A document explaining literally everything can be found [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E9aK_mV0ICrFw20KsmOlXMl2ZbCVQJdYudxlH1BHTw8/edit?usp=sharing) and a playlist of all the pieces used in this behemoth can be found [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7S5ykLyw13uU7mxyBr_IefXnEGWJJbBD) (you might have to look at the document to see which movements are included just fyi)
> 
> Also, all but two of the pieces are available on [IMSLP](http://imslp.org/) for your viewing pleasure! (For those of you who haven't heard of that gem, just give it a look-see because I spend about as much time on that website as I do on tumblr for some reason)
> 
> Rip me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata misses a few notes and walks right into a clash of personalities more dissonant than the Berg Violin Concerto

_“It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.” - Benjamin Britten_

* * *

Shouyou feels the floor beneath his feet wobble once he takes his first step onto the ferry. It isn't much, but it's enough to tell him that yes, he's pretty much walking into an entirely new world. He carries his fully-packed duffel bag in one hand and his sleeping bag in the other, trusting that the straps keeping his violin case on his back would hold steady even without him holding onto them.

His mom had been one step ahead of him and gave him a tiny plastic bag full of motion sickness pills before he left, telling him to only take two at a time and only if he needed them. And he's pretty sure he's going to need them here. He has a distinct feeling that seasickness is going to be his new worst enemy.

But at least he's here. Everything else can fall into the background.

He was thrilled to have gotten into Camp Cantabile at all. He knows he isn't the best violinist around, and he heard there was more competition for violinists than for almost any other instrument out there. But somehow, he hadn’t dropped dead on the spot during his audition and he’d made the cut. He’s spent the past three months with the second violin part of the Smetana E minor string quartet and the fourth violin part of the Mendelssohn octet on his person at all times, along with all his various orchestra parts, and he’s listened to them all enough that he could recognize every minor melody in his sleep. And now he's here, on a ferry to what could be the best three weeks of his entire life so far.

“Hey, could whoever’s holding up the line maybe get a move-on? Some of us have places to be.”

The voice behind him is quiet and flat, but Shouyou can hear it clearly, and whoever it is is somewhere close behind him. And they sound pissed, like someone Shouyou doesn't want to mess with.

Shouyou practically jogs inside the ferry and up to the second floor, trying to find a seat right by the bathroom in case he needs it. He finds a booth with a table in the middle that's next to a vending machine, which is nice, and it has a great view, which is nicer. The bay out before him seems to stretch on forever, with the city behind him being the only thing he can clearly see. There are some patches of green-brown land off in the distance, but they barely seem to rise above the waves.

Other people start walking around, most of them carrying instrument cases of different shapes and sizes. He wonders which of them would be the violist playing the solo at the beginning of the Smetana, or which of them would be playing the cello-driven introduction of the Mendelssohn, or what other pieces people are playing. He's new; there's a lot he doesn't know.

"At least it's you and not someone I've never met."

It's the person who had complained back on the dock. Shouyou cranes his neck to try to see who it is and sees someone walking down the aisleway who looks tall enough to be in college, with blond hair and glasses and a look that seems to tell the entire world that he's displeased with everything in it. He's talking to a slightly shorter boy with brown hair pulled back into a tiny ponytail except for a tiny bit at the front that's sticking straight up, who's in the process of snorting out a laugh. They both have instrument cases strapped to their backs, but Shouyou can't tell which instruments they are.

"I'm only sixth chair, Tsukki, I'm not that good." The brunette lets out a nervous chuckle.

"Who cares about that? I'm just glad that I don't have to deal with someone who disregards tempo entirely." The blond one - Tsukki, apparently - rolls his eyes and takes a seat in another booth a few down from the one Shouyou's sitting in. The brunette sits down across from him, and Shouyou isn't able to hear what they’re saying after that.

"Um, excuse me?"

Shouyou quickly whips his head around to see a tiny girl - she looks even shorter than he is - with blond hair and wide eyes standing in front of the booth he's sitting in. He's already trying to make an excuse as to why he was staring, which isn't going well.

"Can I sit here?" The girl points to the empty seat across from him. "The boat's filling up and I, uh, wanted to get a good seat."

"Oh! Yeah." Shouyou gives an enthusiastic nod and brings his violin case under the table a little closer to him with his foot. "Go ahead!"

"Thanks!" The girl smiles and sits down, putting her backpack next to her on the seat. "So are you here for Camp Cantabile, too?"

"Uh-huh." Shouyou frowns once he noticed that the girl doesn't appear to be carrying a case or anything. "What do you play?"

"Flute, my case is in my bag," the girl says. "What about you?"

"Violin." Shouyou shoots a glance down under the table at his case before looking up at the girl again. "Have you been here before?"

The girl nods. "This is only my second year, though."

"Well, you have more experience than I do." Shouyou laughs. "I don't know anybody."

"I could probably introduce you to some people." The girl holds out her hand, which looks to be shaking the tiniest bit. "I'm Yachi Hitoka, by the way."

"Hinata Shouyou." Shouyou grabs her hand and lightly shakes it before resting his elbow on the table again. "It's nice to meet you, Yachi-san!"

"You, too, Hinata-kun." Yachi smiles. "So what groups are you in?"

Shouyou remembers that one of his groups is identified by a letter and the other by a number, but he can't remember either of them. "I don't remember the letter-number thing."

"Oh." Yachi frowns. "Then what pieces are you playing? I might be able to recognize them."

"The Smetana quartet and the Mendelssohn octet." Shouyou grins.

"Oh!" Yachi's eyes light up. "My friend's in both of your groups! Group F is the Smetana and group 4 is the Mendelssohn, I think that’s what he said."

"Really?" Shouyou asks. "What's he like?"

“His name’s Yamaguchi Tadashi, he plays viola,” Yachi says. “He’s kind of quiet, but he’s a really nice guy. You’ll like him.” She pauses, scrunching her eyebrows up in thought. “He told me some things about the other people, but I can’t remember right now, sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Shouyou mentally sighs with relief that there's at least one other person in his group who he can get along with.

“Right!” Yachi sighs after a second. “You’re with Tsukishima-kun, too. Good luck.”

“Who?”

“Tsukishima Kei, he’s most likely the other violinist in the Smetana with you.” Yachi gives a lackluster smile. “He’s a really good violinist and he's a decent person once you get to know him well enough, but he’s kind of hard to get used to.”

Shouyou laughs. “Nothing I can’t handle, right?”

Yachi giggles back. “You can try!”

There's a rumble as the ferry leaves the dock, jetting out into the open water. The boat's big enough that no one can really notice unless they're actually looking, but Shouyou is doing just that. He's spellbound as he looks out the window at the white-capped waves flowing out from the sides of the boat and at all the tiny other boats around the rest of the bay.

Shouyou now knows about two of the three other members of his quartet, and he knows that one is nice and one is... probably not. And the same two people happen to be in his octet, too, but he wonders about everyone else. He wonders who the cellist in his quartet will be, who the other members of his octet will be, who he’d end up being stand partners with in orchestra. He’d gotten the second-violin part, and he’d been assigned fourth chair, but he hadn’t looked at the email long enough to find out who's sitting next to him.

But he can worry about that later. He has something that he needs to do while he's on the ferry.

"Hey, Yachi-san? Can you watch my stuff?" Shouyou stands up and takes a step into the aisle. "I'm going to go out on the deck."

"Sure." Yachi nods. "I'll be right here!"

"Thanks!" Shouyou's still looking back at Yachi and can't see the person directly in front of him until they bump right into him. He turns around and finds himself staring straight at a tall boy with black hair, a pissed-off expression, and a cello case on his back. A chill immediately shoots down Shouyou's spine at the sight of him.

"Can you watch where you're going?" The boy scowls.

"How about you watch where _you're_ going?" Shouyou knows it isn't much in terms of a comeback, but he doesn't really care. "I was just standing here."

The boy rolls his eyes. "Whatever, just don't go getting in people's way, it's annoying." He walks right on by, not giving Shouyou a second glance and almost hitting him in the face with his cello.

"What is that guy's problem?" Shouyou asks once the boy is out of earshot. "He just walked into me and played it off like it was my fault, who does that?"

"I don't know." Yachi narrows her eyes as she watches him walk away. "I remember him from last year, but I forget his name."

Shouyou scrunches his face up in a frown. "Happen to know why he's so prickly?"

Yachi shrugs. "No idea."

Shouyou lets out a breath. "I'm going out, I'll be back in a minute!" A grin reappears on his face as he walks down the aisleway to the doors leading out onto the deck. There's no need to worry about that guy unless they happen to be in a group together. So he isn't going to.

The wind blows right into his face as he shoves the doors open and walks out onto the deck. He can clearly smell the salty sea air, and when he looks down over the side, he can see waves forming as the front of the boat cuts through them. There are a few other people out here, all talking in groups of two or three, and as expected, he doesn't know any of them.

He stays here for a little while, looking out over the front of the boat. There's an island off in the distance, where he assumes is their destination. According to all the emails that had cluttered up his inbox a month or two ago, the island is called Sapphire Island, and there's a tiny town near the dock where they'll get on buses to the camp itself.

He wonders about that part of it, too. He wonders what cabin he'll be in, who his roommates will be, what kind of things will happen outside of rehearsals. He wants to play games and make friends, too, but he has no idea if that will actually happen.

He realizes far too late that he shouldn’t have left Yachi to look after his stuff for that long, especially when he’d only met her a few minutes ago. He turns around and jogs back toward the doors, almost running into someone else when he pushes them open. He utters a rushed apology before running back to his booth, where Yachi is still sitting, completely calm as she stares at something across the ship.

“I’m back!” Shouyou practically falls into the seat before swinging his legs over the side. “Sorry for making you wait so long!”

“O-oh! It’s fine!” Yachi blinks a few times, like she’d been daydreaming and had just woken up.

“Is everything okay?” Shouyou asks, cocking his head to the side.

“Yep!” Yachi gives an uneasy smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay.”

They sit there for the rest of the ride, talking about where they’re from, what schools they go to, everything they can think about. They look at each other’s parts and ask every question about the music that they can. Yachi periodically stops to say hi to people as they walk through the aisle and introduces them to Shouyou as they pass; he remembers Yachi’s stand partner, Shibayama, her group’s oboist, Ennoshita, and the second cellist in Shouyou’s octet, a tall but energetic guy named Lev. There are other people, but Shouyou can't remember them nearly as well.

“Attention, all passengers.” A voice scratches over the intercom. “We are nearly at our destination. Please gather your belongings and prepare to exit the ferry.”

A shot of excitement goes right through Shouyou’s chest as he reaches under the table to grab his violin case and put it on his back. He stands up before he grabs his other bags and waits for Yachi. She's the only person he knows here, after all, and while he can handle being alone, he would much rather walk with somebody.

There are more people in the camp than he expected. When he gets off the ferry, he's only one of a group of what seems like two hundred people, even though he knows it's less. He's right in the middle of a crowd of people he’d never met, which is daunting but also pretty exciting.

He's almost done walking to the pair of bright yellow school buses when he realizes that he's lost Yachi. He'd probably been walking too quickly to notice, but it's too late to do anything about it now.

He boards the first of the two buses in the line and tries to find her, but upon walking through the aisle, he finds that he can't. He resigns himself to taking an open seat in the middle-back. A bunch of people walk past him to sit in the very back, but no one fills up the seats near him until much later, just before the bus drives off. He doesn't make much of it; a lot of people probably know each other from previous years, and he'll meet some new people soon.

Just before the buses pull off, a boy with a trombone case sits down next to him, but they don’t talk. The trombonist talks to his friends in the seat in front of him the whole time, and Shouyou’s perfectly content with just looking out the window until they get there.

They drive through a small town with charming storefronts before both sides of the bus are lined with trees as they enter a forest. There aren’t any signs of civilization anywhere, and Shouyou feels a weird sense of wonder and excitement driving through it.

The bus turns into a large driveway with a wooden gate at the entrance. Shouyou can’t read the carved letters, but he can make out a pair of carved eighth notes at the end. When the bus pulls to a stop, it looks like the entire camp is spread out before him. There are buildings everywhere, some with one story and some with two, and he can’t guess the purpose of any of them. There are sets of buildings in small clusters around the grounds, with two huge buildings in the center.

People start chattering excitedly as they get off the bus, and Shouyou stays in the middle of the crowd as it moves toward one of the larger buildings. People start to split off into lines, probably based on last name, and Shouyou quickly scans the signs near the building before going to stand in one of the middle lines. The wait is long, but Shouyou eventually reaches the table at the front.

"Hi, what's your name?" The cheerful-looking female counselor asks from her seat behind the table.

"Hinata Shouyou."

She pauses for a second, trying to find something in an accordion file. She pulls a few pieces of paper out before handing them to him. "All right, Hinata-kun, this is your reference packet. It has your name tag, your schedule, your cabin assignment, and almost everything else that you need to know."

"Thanks!" Shouyou grins, flipping through the pages.

“Go drop off your stuff in your room and bring your instrument to the building behind me,” the woman says. “We’re going to have a meeting there in fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you!” Shouyou starts running off to catch up with the rest of the crowd.

Everyone is walking along a gravel path to the right side of the camp, and Shouyou follows along, assuming that the cabins are over there. He flips through his packet again until he found which cabin he’s in: Cabin Vivace, room 2. There are two clusters of what he assumes are the boys’ and girls’ cabins, and he follows the group of boys in front of him until he gets to the door. After checking more than once to see that this is actually the right cabin, he slips in while the door’s still open.  

The cabin is already abuzz with activity when Shouyou walks in, with loud conversations everywhere he looks. There are three rooms off the main hallway, along with two more on the ends that he thinks are the counselors’ room and the bathroom, and room 2 is, as expected, in the middle. Shouyou mutters out tiny excuse-me’s as he tries to push his way in between the two much taller guys standing in front of the door.

Once he gets into the room, he spies three bunk beds in a neat row on one side of the room with two sinks on the other and a door leading to what Shouyou assumes is a bathroom. There’s a colorful rug on the floor and a quickly-spinning fan hangs down from the ceiling.

Two people are sitting on two of the bottom bunks. One of them he knows: Lev, the guy in his octet who Yachi had introduced him to on the ship, grins at him as he walks in. The other is a person he’d never met before with dyed-blond hair who’s holding a PSP. He doesn’t look up.

“Is this room 2?” Shouyou asks, even though he’s sure he’s right.

“Yeah.” Lev nods.

“Go ahead and claim a bed, everyone else is going to get here soon.” The blonde still doesn’t look up.

“Okay.” Shouyou nods, plopping his stuff down next to the unoccupied bed before climbing up to the top bunk and looking over at the blonde. “What’s your name?”

“Me?” Lev laughs. “Hinata, you already know my name -”

“I know that!” Shouyou grins, looking back to the blonde.

“That’s Kenma-san, we were roommates last year.” Lev looks over at the blonde himself. “He’s not really talkative.”

“I’m _selectively_ talkative.” Kenma rolls his eyes before looking up at Shouyou. “Hinata, was it?”

“Yep.” Shouyou nods again. He’s doing a lot of that today. “Hinata Shouyou, nice to meet you.”

“Kozume Kenma, likewise.” Kenma seems to go back to focusing on his game again.

“So do we wait for everyone else to get here or do we just go back to the hall?” Shouyou asks. “I’m new here, so I don’t know how anything works.”

“You can do whatever you want.” Lev shrugs. “We’re waiting for some other people to get here before we go, but you can leave if you want.”

“Okay.” Shouyou’s perfectly fine staying here if it means meeting new people. “I’m staying, then.”

Right after he finishes talking, the door opened and a boy with a black bowl cut walks in, nervously looking around the room before looking at the other three people inside. He looks like he’s struggling to carry all his things, and it’s a miracle that he doesn’t drop anything.

“Hi, welcome to room 2!” Shouyou and Lev say the same thing at almost the same time and share a grin.

“What’s your name?” Lev asks.

“G-Goshiki Tsutomu.” The boy bows his head before walking over to Shouyou’s bed. “Can I take the bottom bunk?”

“Go ahead.” Shouyou smiles, sticking his hand down over the edge of the bed. “Hinata Shouyou, by the way.”

“Oh.” Goshiki lightly shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“What do you play? I think I remember you from last year.” Lev scrunches his eyebrows up in thought.

“I play viola.” Goshiki’s eyes light up. “Wait, you play cello, right?”

“Yeah.” Lev nods. “Nice to meet you!”

“You too.” Goshiki puts his bags down before he looks towards the door. “Um, do you mind if I go early? There are some people I want to talk to and -”

“It’s fine, go ahead.” Shouyou waves at Goshiki as he grabs his case and slips out the door. “See you later!”

“Kenma-san, why didn’t you introduce yourself?” Lev asks.

Kenma shrugs. “I didn’t need to, he’ll know my name soon enough.”

Lev laughs. “Kenma-san, you’re weird.”

Kenma doesn’t pay him any attention. “Why are you trying to talk to me when Shouyou probably wants to actually talk to you?”

Shouyou’s surprised at the sudden use of his first name, but he doesn’t mind all that much.

Lev shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“Lev, is that you?” A perky voice comes from outside the room, accompanied by a firm knock.  

“Looks like the party’s here.” Lev grins at Shouyou before turning to the door again. “Took you long enough!”

The door opens and two people walk in, both carrying wind cases, though Shouyou can only place one of the instruments. He recognizes the shorter one as Shibayama, Yachi’s stand partner, who obviously plays flute, but he’s never seen the taller one before. The taller boy sets his bags on the top bunk of Lev’s bed and Shibayama takes the top bunk of Kenma’s.

“Hello, Kenma-san.” Shibayama bows his head as he climbs up the ladder. All Kenma gives in response is a nod.

“Hey, are you new?” The taller one looks over at Shouyou with an excited glint in his eye. “I don’t remember seeing you around last year.”

“Yeah.” Shouyou nods.

“Oh! Cool.” The taller boy grins. “I’m Inuoka Sou, looks like we’re roommates.” He points to Shibayama, who’s taking his flute case out of his bag. “That’s Shibayama Yuuki, he’s my best friend.”

“Hello!” Shibayama turns around and waved for a brief second before going back to his bag. “You’re friends with Yachi-san, right?”

“I only met her on the ferry, but I guess so.” Shouyou shrugs.

“What’s your name?” Inuoka asks.

“Hinata Shouyou.”

“Nice to meet you, Hinata.” Inuoka grabs his case and gets down off the bed. “Want to walk to the meeting with us?”

Shouyou’s surprised that he isn’t the one asking, but he’s happy to make as many new friends as he can when everyone else had probably known each other forever. He nods and is the second person out the door after grabbing his violin case, with everyone else trailing out behind.

Lev and Inuoka talk a lot, while Kenma sticks around the back and Shouyou stays in front. He sees people with cases of all shapes and sizes walking along the path, and he wonders which of those people he’ll get to play with.

“All right, here we are.” Inuoka points at a sign labeled “Dining Hall” near the table where Shouyou had signed in earlier. “I guess is where we split up.”

“Find me at lunch!” Lev is the first one to push open the door, disappearing into the crowd inside shortly thereafter.

Shouyou is the next to go in, and immediately after the door closes behind him, he’s greeted by another counselor, who asks him which letter group he’s in. When he stutters out "F", a letter he can barely remember, the counselor points him towards the corner, where a group of three boys are seated against the wall.

And he recognizes all of them.

The black-haired guy he bumped into is sitting in the corner, his cello case separating him from everyone else. He’s still frowning as his eyes scan the crowd. The blonde and the brunette from the ferry are sitting next to each other, appearing to have a conversation, though the brunette is clearly doing most of the talking. A piece of paper marked with a large blue "F" is taped to the floor right in front of them, so Shouyou knows he’s in the right place.

He takes a seat next to the piece of paper and sets his case down. He doesn't sit against the wall like everyone else is, but he doesn’t care. Besides, there isn't much room in the corner. No one else in the group appears to want to talk, and he already feels intimidated.

"Attention, everyone!" On the stage at the front of the room, a short-ish man with dark hair and glasses taps the microphone in front of him. He smiles as everyone cuts off their conversations and starts to look up at him one by one. "I'm just going to make a few announcements and we'll be on our way."

Shouyou expects everyone to sing that cheesy announcements song at every summer camp he'd ever been to, but that doesn’t come.

"For those of you who don't know, my name's Takeda Ittetsu, and I'm one of the co-directors of Camp Cantabile." The man looks out at the audience. "For all the new faces in the room, welcome, and for all the familiar ones, welcome back. I'm -" He briefly turns around to look at the row of people behind him. " _We're_ looking forward to a great few weeks with all of you." He looks back at one person, a woman with short blond hair. "Tanaka-san? Would you like to say more?"

"Sure." The woman takes the microphone and grins at everybody in the room. "Hi, everybody, I'm Tanaka Saeko, and I'm just one of the coaches on our lovely panel this year, which I just happen to head.” She gestures to the row of people behind her, who are met with raucous applause. “I specialize in piano and brass, but chances are I'll be working with all of you at some point while you're here. All of us are here to help you with whatever you need, so feel free to ask us anything." She lets out a breath. "For those of you who are here for the first time, I know it can be pretty da-” She pauses for a second before she chuckles. “ _Darn_ intimidating sitting there with people who look like they've all known each other for years. But you're here for a reason, and by being here, you've proven that you're just as good as they are. You're going to have a great time, and I’m looking forward to working with you!" She holds the microphone in Takeda’s general direction as everyone else in the room applauds again.

"Thank you." Takeda takes the microphone back. "Your main goal today is to meet your groups and get to know them a little bit. There's plenty of time to rehearse, and while you should sightread your music today, becoming a solid group is top priority. You’re going to be rehearsing with your letter groups from 10:30 until 11:30, then we’re going to have lunch, followed by number group rehearsal at 12:30 and orchestra rehearsal from 1:30 to 2:45. Your specific rehearsal locations are in your packets, along with a map of the camp grounds, and if you don’t know where anything is, feel free to ask anyone for directions.” He pauses to laugh. “I think that’s enough talking for now, so go out and make something beautiful!”

Shouyou looks at the three people next to him, wondering if that’s going to be possible.

Everyone starts standing up to leave, and Shouyou joins in before realizing that his group is in no rush to get out of here. They get up slowly, and the cellist stretches before grabbing his case. He doesn't stop to wait for anyone else and walks out, blending into the crowd after a while.

Shouyou immediately tries to find him again, jetting through every spot he can find in the mass of people. He doesn't know why; this guy doesn't exactly seem like a nice person. But they're in the same group, so Shouyou supposes they have to stick together.

Once the crowd starts to disperse outside the building, Shouyou can see the cellist turning a corner and starts running to catch up with him. He eventually reaches him and even runs a small distance in front of him, only to turn around to face him.

"What do you want?" The cellist asks, taking a step to the side.

"We're in the same group, right?" Shouyou puts his hands on his hips. "We should be getting to know each other."

"Not until we get to our room." The cellist frowns. "Besides, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi are in our group, too, why aren't you following _them_ around?"

"We're alone for the walk over, so I thought I'd at least try to socialize." Shouyou shrugs. "What's your name, anyway?"

"...Kageyama," the cellist grumbles.

"Well, my name's Hinata -" Shouyou stops once he sees Kageyama take him over again. "Kageyama, wait!"

"Leave me alone." Kageyama speeds up as he walks. "I'm not here to make friends."

Shouyou stands there for a second before setting off on his own again.

The two of them don't talk once they get to the practice room. When Shouyou walks in, Kageyama's already unpacking, so Shouyou finds a desk in the corner and does the same.

"Unpacking already?" The door opens and another voice floats through. "Well, aren't you feisty?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Shouyou can see Kageyama suck in a breath and turn around. "The more I time I spend playing, the less time I'll have to spend talking to you."

"Come on, isn't that slightly uncalled for?" The other voice is biting and sarcastic, and Shouyou recognizes the tone from the boat. "You can't count rests, that's not my fault."

"Tsukishima, you're an asshole."

"We're both solo players in an ensemble setting, it's only natural." Tsukishima sets his case on a desk next to Shouyou's. "What a weird twist of fate that we ended up in the same group again after last year, huh?"

"It can't be a coincidence if all three of us did." Another voice, who Shouyou guesses belongs to Yamaguchi, drifts through the room. "I'm pretty sure that they want us to learn something."

"Like doing the bowings that we agreed on." Kageyama scowls.

"Or staying in tempo," Tsukishima shoots back without missing a beat.

"Or maybe keeping string-crosses steady."

"Could it possibly be getting the hell out of the way when you have a whole note and there's a goddamn viola solo?" Tsukishima sighs. "You'd better not fuck that up this year."

"Tsukki, cut it out." Yamaguchi's voice is quiet, but it somehow manages to silence the entire room except for the clicks and zips of cases.

Shouyou wonders what happened last year that caused Tsukishima and Kageyama to hate each other so much. It must have been a bad performance, but how could one performance mess everything else up? Shouyou doesn't think he'll ever know the answer to that question, at least not for a while.

"So..." Shouyou feels extremely awkward jumping into the conversation, but he doesn't think there's any other way to let himself into it. "Sightreading?"

"That seems like a good idea," Yamaguchi says from across the room. He and Shouyou turn around at the same time and pull up a pair of chairs, setting them down next to each other in the center of the room. "Sorry."

Shouyou doesn't hear him at first. "What are you apologizing for?"

Yamaguchi smiles and looks at Kageyama and Tsukishima. "Things are pretty rocky between them. Sorry you have to deal with that when you had nothing to do with it."

"What happened, anyway?" Shouyou asks.

"It's nothing, just a performance that wasn't as good as it should have been." Yamaguchi brushes it off and quickly changes the subject. "You're Hinata, right? Yachi-san told me about you."

"Uh-huh." Shouyou nods. "Nice to meet you."

"You, too." Yamaguchi sets his music up on the stand just as Tsukishima and Kageyama finish unpacking and pull up chairs of their own, creating a semicircle in the middle of the room. Everyone adjusts their chairs so they can see better, staring at each other for a few seconds.

"How about we just see how far we can go?" Yamaguchi asks. "No pressure."

Everyone nods in approval, and Tsukishima brings his violin up to his shoulder, waiting for a second before he lifts up his scroll in rhythm. He lifts it ever so slightly higher on the fourth lift, and -

_SCREECH!_

As soon as Shouyou hears the first chord, he knows it’s all kinds of wrong. Shouyou comes in early, Kageyama comes in late, the top note of Tsukishima's chord seems flat, and you can't hear Yamaguchi at all. The cacophony of it all makes a buzzing sound in Shouyou’s ears.

But he keeps an open mind; it's only their first rehearsal, after all. There's enough time to fix everything before they're supposed to perform this. They'll learn to come in at the same time and balance each other's sound out, and they're going to sound just fine.

Right?

The second the four of them hit the chord, they stop playing again, putting their instruments down. They all look over their stands at each other, like they're looking for someone to blame. None of them make a sound for a good few seconds; the practice room is enveloped in cold, uncomfortable silence.

"Do I need to throw my violin up in the air for you idiots to see the cue?" Tsukishima asks, rolling his eyes before he gives both Shouyou and Kageyama an intimidating glare.

"You didn't even try to make it look like a cue, how were we supposed to differentiate it from a normal breath?" Kageyama scowls, narrowing his eyes.

They've been here for seven minutes and there's already tension in the air that makes the room feel stuffy and warm. Shouyou doesn't think they're going to be able to get through the ten-minute movement without arguing for at least twenty minutes, let alone talk about balance or phrasing or any of the other things they need to get figured out before the performance.

"H-how about we try it again?" Yamaguchi tries to clear the air, but he sounds like he's scared of getting into the argument himself. "We know a little bit more about each other's playing styles, so it should sound better this time!"

Tsukishima shrugs and grabs his bow off the stand before bringing his violin back to his shoulder, a chilling frown still on his face. Everyone else does the same, though Shouyou and Yamaguchi both try to bring down the heat a little.

Tsukishima gives a slightly more obvious cue this time, and once they play the chord, they ignore the crappy intonation and move along, Shouyou doubling Tsukishima's eighth notes while Kageyama sustains a low E underneath them.

When Yamaguchi comes in a few measures later, Shouyou can barely hear him, even though they're seated right next to each other. He sounds small and meek, like he's afraid of standing out, and his dynamic level can't even compare to the rest of the quartet. It sounds good, though, from what Shouyou can hear. He's clearly practiced for hours, and his articulation and intonation are both polished enough to show it.

Yamaguchi’s the first one to stop playing, followed soon after by Tsukishima, who puts his bow on the stand and gives an exasperated sigh. Shouyou puts his violin down in his lap, looking for a sign of where to go from here.

“Sorry.” Yamaguchi stares down at his knees. “I should have played that louder.”

“Everyone else has pianissimo there, so it shouldn't matter." Something in Tsukishima's voice has a distinct bite of passive-aggression that seems to be directed at Kageyama. "That can come later."

"Okay." Yamaguchi nods, taking a breath before putting his viola back up on his shoulder.

They start from the beginning again, and the chord is slightly more together this time. They actually get pretty far into the piece, and it sounds like _music_ instead of a mass of mismatched sounds. Despite Shouyou's not-stellar first impressions of them, Kageyama and Tsukishima can actually play, and they seem to know the music just as well as he does. He's probably the only one who can actually hear Yamaguchi, but he sounds good, too.

They're somehow managing to stay together, even though everyone's tone and phrasing sound drastically different. People come in too loud or too soft, but that doesn't matter yet. They're getting to know each other through their instruments and their playing styles, and while Shouyou hasn't known any of them very long, he can clearly see the connection between the part and the personality that goes with it. Kageyama's notes are heavy, but his articulation is more pronounced than anyone else's. Tsukishima has a presence as the high part, looming above everybody else but somewhat reserved. Yamaguchi is well-rehearsed but quiet, and he seems like he'd rather stay out of the spotlight than be in it. Shouyou thinks his own style is enthusiastic, and he exaggerates dynamics as much as he can - at least, he tries to. They're all different, but somehow they're working together, making this.

Somewhere in his stream of repeated eighth notes, Shouyou thinks that through all the arguing and tension between them, this group might actually work out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on tumblr at [hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com) (writing blog) or [violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com) (personal/fandom/everything else blog) so ask me any questions there or in the comments ~~( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)~~


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kyoutani and Yahaba bond over Vaughan Williams, Yaku dispenses his mystical cello knowledge, and Daichi regrets changing his strings when he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why, but the second chapter always takes like a month for me and then the rest of the chapters take like two weeks. Sorry for the late update!
> 
> Anyway, I'll link the pieces in the fic in case you want to listen while you read because the music is cool. The links are in the first few words of each section
> 
> But the playlist is [here](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7S5ykLyw13uU7mxyBr_IefXnEGWJJbBD)! (I've changed some of the songs since last chapter fyi)
> 
> Also, this au is turning out to be much more relatable than I initially thought.

[“There’s one shift](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7S5ykLyw13uU7mxyBr_IefXnEGWJJbBD) that I can’t get no matter how hard I try, you have no idea.” Shigeru sighs, slumping his shoulders over as he walks. The violin case on his back threatens to tip him forward, but he doesn’t care. He’s learned to control its momentum.

“I play  _ piano _ , shut up.” Watari lightly shoves him in the shoulder. “Your part is nothing, trust me.”

“Yeah, but -”

“You should see the trio, it’s the dictionary definition of hell.” Watari sighs, opening the door to the practice room. “I’ll show you when we get in there, the violin part looks like something out of a fifth-grade orchestra piece compared to that.” 

“I’ll be sure to look.” Shigeru follows him inside, glad that he’s guaranteed someone normal in both groups. He hasn’t bothered to check who else is going to be in the room when he walks in, but his down-to-earth best friend is more than enough. He’s a classical musician after all, they’re a weird bunch most of the time, and that’s being generous. 

His thoughts are stopped in his tracks by the sound of a cello. He knows the melody by heart; he’s listened to the Dvorak he’s playing enough times to recognize it, and it sounds good. The tone quality is better than he would have expected, and he’s jealous of the expertly-executed phrasing the cellist is displaying, something that always sounds forced when Shigeru tries to pull it off.

The sound abruptly stops when Shigeru and Watari walk in, and once the cellist comes into view, Shigeru recognizes him instantly. 

“Hello, Kyoutani-kun.” Watari grins before Shigeru can cut in, and Shigeru’s grateful that the guy’s a natural peacemaker. 

Kyoutani only gives a nod, turning back around to face his stand. The other two haven’t gotten to there yet, and Shigeru can’t help but wonder who they’ll be. If he’s first violin, that automatically rules a lot of people out, that being all the people who are better than him. He’s last chair first violin, so that leaves the entire second violin section to choose from. And he has no idea who the violist is.

But he’s in the same group with Kyoutani again. Like many things last year, their group was a disaster, and he feels sorry for Shirabu, the violist that had to deal with them arguing their way through the Beethoven. 

He figures that it could have been worse, but they still don’t seem to be on speaking terms.

“Sorry we’re late!” A boy with black hair that seems to stick straight up runs into the room, a shorter boy with a sagging mop of dark brown hair trailing behind him. Both of them are carrying cases that look almost identical.

“It’s fine!” Watari says, “We haven’t done anything yet.”

The taller boy nods and walks in, setting his case on a desk. The shorter boy follows, doing the same thing. 

"So..." Watari pulls the piano bench out from underneath the piano, trying to fill the awkward silence. "How about we introduce ourselves once we're all unpacked?"

"Fine by me." Shigeru shrugs, taking his violin out of his case and setting it on the desk as he takes out his bow. After setting a chair down across from Kyoutani, he helps Watari roll out the baby grand before sitting down. He sets his music on the stand and practices his left-hand technique while he waits.

The second violinist comes rushing over soon enough - he looks nervous, and Shigeru has no idea why - and the violist is last to sit down, looking like he doesn't care about that fact at all. 

"Okay, how about we say our names, how old we are, and..." Watari trails off as he spins around on the bench to face the rest of the group. "How about one piece we want to play in the future?"

Everyone else nods with various degrees of enthusiasm. 

"I'll start." Watari pauses for a second, probably trying to choose just one piece off his mile-long wishlist. "I'm Watari Shinji, I'm sixteen, and this is really cliché, but I want to play the second Rachmaninoff piano concerto." He turns to Shigeru with a grin. "Your turn!"  
Shigeru sighs, realizing that he, too, is forced to choose only one piece. "I'm Yahaba Shigeru, I'm also sixteen, and I want to play The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams."

"Oh!" The second violinist's eyes widen when he sees everyone else look at him expectantly. "I'm Kindaichi Yuutarou, sixteen, one piece I want to play is..." He pauses, and it's clear that everyone's having the same dilemma. "The Moldau."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Shigeru mutters. Watari gives him a half-glare.

"Kunimi Akira, fifteen, Shostakovich five." The violist is done talking practically as soon as he starts, and he doesn't look like he's going to expand on it. But at least he has good taste. 

"Kyoutani Kentarou, sixteen..." Kyoutani pauses, scrunching his eyebrows up in thought. "Dark Pastoral for Cello and Orchestra."

Another Vaughn Williams. What a weird coincidence. Shigeru's surprised; as far as cello concertos go, Kyoutani seems like the type who'd go for Dvorak, but that's the most overdone and overhyped concerto on the planet, so it's not all that surprising.

"Great." Watari spins around to face the keyboard again. "So, sightreading?"

Everyone nods and brings their instruments to a playing position. Shigeru realizes far too late that he's supposed to cue, which only leads to awkward silence and everyone staring at him. 

"One, two, three, one, two..." He figures it's fine to count, since they're only playing this for the first time. He lifts the scroll of his violin on the last beat, hoping that everyone else can recognize it as a cue. He was never good at those. 

As Shigeru starts playing the main melody of the scherzo, the other strings each play their accompaniment while Watari waits for his entrance. His fingers hover anxiously over the keys, waiting for his turn. 

"Wait, guys, you're not together." Watari narrows his eyes to look at the score as everyone drops out one by one. 

"Yeah, that's because you're going too slow." Kyoutani glares at Shigeru in return.

"Excuse me, we're sightreading and this is a  _ scherzo _ , what makes you think I'm going to go at full tempo?" Shigeru glares right back.

"Okay, everyone play except Yahaba for the first eight measures." Watari sighs, trying to break up the argument before it can really start. "I'll count for you."

Shigeru watches the other three as Watari counts them in, trying to discern how they're going to play. Kyoutani is weirdly aggressive, but Kindaichi has the typical second-violinist false confidence and Kunimi looks like just as much of a normal violist as any other. This group shouldn't be too much of a hassle. 

The next time they play through, Shigeru comes back in, and he begins to realize that they fit together a lot more than he thought they would. Still, he's worried. He's seen enough failed performances in the auditorium down the path that he knows anything could go wrong, and he doesn't want to be in one of the groups on that list. The Beethoven last year got close, but it never got that bad, and he's more confident in this group anyway, but he's apprehensive anyway.

After all, they're playing Dvorak.

* * *

 

[Morisuke has been](https://youtu.be/fKnOzPk7A1s) just fine so far. He likes the pieces he’s working on; they’re hard but not ridiculously hard, so practicing is necessary but not impossible. His roommates are quiet, and they don’t look like they’ll be a hassle to deal with.

The only problem is that he’s playing a duet with someone who is practically the opposite of what this piece requires. 

The piece is slow and melodic, requiring a lot of phrasing and a sentimental kind of tone typical of slow pieces. In order to be successful, both cellists need to add vibrato and rubato while still staying with the pianist. And most importantly, the cellists need to match each other’s tone and tempo. 

And Haiba Lev’s style of playing is entirely wrong in all of those regards. 

Takeda-sensei said that today was for sightreading and getting to know each other, but Morisuke isn’t having any of that. Someone has to get Lev in line, and since Morisuke’s playing a duet with him,  _ he  _ has to be the one to do it.

He looks to Kenma for something akin to advice, but Kenma doesn’t look back. He just stares at the sheet music on the upright piano in front of him for a few seconds before writing something in.

Morisuke didn’t know that Kenma played piano at all until this morning, but it turns out that he’s not half-bad. He’s keeping up with the cellists’ lapses in tempo, and he makes the background chords look easy. Morisuke doesn’t know if they are or not; the only song he’s ever learned on the piano is “Chopsticks”, and even that he learned from Kuroo during a break last year.

The cello is what he knows, and he isn’t going to question anything that he doesn’t know.

“Something sounds weird.” Lev looks at the sheet music and frowns. “It just doesn’t sound right.”

_ Of course it doesn’t _ . “Your tone doesn’t match mine.” Morisuke hopes his explanation isn’t too blunt for Lev to take it as a personal attack. “It’s a melodic duet, that has to happen before we can get anywhere.”

“Okay.” Lev still looks confused. “So what do you mean by that?"

"You're playing too..." Morisuke pauses, trying to think of the right word for what he's thinking. "...on the surface. You have to get more into the string and make a deeper sound."

Lev nods slowly, like he still doesn't understand. 

"Listen. You're playing more like this." Morisuke puts his bow on the string and plays the first few notes of his main melody line, barely grazing the string to make it sound overly airy. 

"And you want it to be more like this?" Lev asks, playing his counterpart to the melody. He uses more bow, which is good, and the difference in his sound is obvious. He uses too much weight and sounds scratchy, which isn't great, but he seems to have the right idea.

"Somewhat." Morisuke nods, surprised that Lev could even play like that. "Just make it less scratchy."

Lev bobs his head. "Got it." He picks a pencil up off his stand and scribbles a few notes in his music before picking his bow up again. "From the top?"

"Sure." Morisuke looks back at the music. The piece is short enough for them to do that without much trouble. 

Kenma starts the accompaniment once more, and Morisuke sets his fingers down on the fingerboard. He’s played this line hundreds of times by now, and he could probably play it in his sleep.

That doesn’t mean that he can play it perfectly, but he’s pretty damn close. 

While Lev’s tone is still a little off, he clearly gets what Morisuke’s going for, and his sound is much deeper than it was before. He’s using more bow, and he’s clearly putting more weight into the string. He’s a fast learner, which is very good, and Morisuke will probably always be grateful that his intonation is pretty much there, since that’s one less thing he has to worry about.

They somehow manage to play the entire piece in one go, which is essentially the point of sightreading, but it’s still impressive. Kenma stays in the background but is constantly there, knowing full well that he doesn't have the spotlight but is a necessary part of this whole thing. The three of them stay pretty much together, with some rough spots in places, and it’s pretty clear that Morisuke underestimated Lev entirely. The only thing they really have to work on besides Lev’s tone quality - which is admittedly a pretty big problem for the situation - is the rubato, which can be easily figured out if they talk about it and more easily done if they stay in contact with each other when they’re playing. And Lev’s already on top of that; he seems to have the music memorized and looks up more than he needs to for a first playthrough.  

He clearly has more experience than he lets on, and Morisuke would be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised. 

“That sounded great, right?” Lev asks as soon as they let go of the last note, eyes bright. 

“It wasn’t bad.” Morisuke can’t say more than that, because he knows there are things for both of them to work on, but he doesn’t understate how well that went, either. “How much did you practice that?”

“A magician never reveals his tricks, Yaku-san.” Lev grins. Morisuke doesn’t know whether to laugh or punch him.

"It's not  _ magic _ , idiot." Morisuke scoffs. 

"You're one to talk!"

"What are you talking about?" 

"Yaku-san, how do you get it to sound so good?" Lev whines, dragging out the "san" as much as he can, which is incredibly annoying. "Whenever I play it, it sounds all scratchy and gross."

"It's better than it was before." Morisuke isn't sure how he's able to deal with all this. "You're getting the hang of it."

"Yeah, but how do I get it to sound better?"

"Well..." Damn, Lev's ambition is infectious. "I guess what I would do is find a practice room later and experiment with different bow pressure and length. You're bound to find something that works."

"Got it, I'll try that tonight."

"But don't ignore your other music, either." Morisuke frowns. "It's bound to be more complicated than this."

"I know, I know!" Lev laughs. "Geez, Yaku-san, you're like my mom!"

"That's what they all say," Morisuke mutters under his breath. 

Something shifts in the background, and he looks over to see Kenma picking his DS up off the piano bench. It's not like Morisuke cares; he's definitely been one to read during rehearsals when he's bored, and as long as it's not a distraction, it doesn't matter.

"Hey, Yaku-san.” Lev gives him a puzzled look. “Doesn’t the piece seem easy to you?”

“I guess.” Morisuke stares at the music again, seeing that the rhythms aren’t hard, and while his part is somewhat high, the piece is slow enough where the shifts are easy to pull off. “There’s still plenty to do, there always is.” He looks up at Lev again. “What’s your other piece?”

“The Mendelssohn octet.” Lev grins, shuffling sheets around in his ripped-up folder before pulling a few out and setting them on the stand. “Wanna see?”

Morisuke puts his cello down before leaning over to look at the music. “You’re second cello?”

“Uh-huh.” Lev nods, proud of himself. “There's no way I could be first cello so here I am!”

Morisuke is about to declare that a risk to humanity as he knows it before he realizes that fast movements are probably Lev’s specialty. “Play the opening.”

“What?” Lev’s eyes fly open wide. “Why?”

“We don’t have anything more to do on the Shostakovich today, and I’m bored.” Morisuke crosses his arms. “You should be comfortable with it. It’s your solo, after all.”

“Okay, I’ll try it.” Lev sighs, picking his cello up again as he narrows his eyes to look at the scrawled-in fingerings in his part. “It doesn’t sound as good as it could, though.”

“Whatever, just play it.”

Lev gulps as he raises his bow to the string, launching in barely a second later. He sounds fine, as far as Morisuke’s concerned. Sure, his A flats are consistently sharp and the coordination between his right and left hand isn't quite together, but he doesn’t hesitate once, keeping his tempo steady even when it looks like he’s going to fall apart.

He lands on the last D out of breath, despite the passage only being four measures long, and Morisuke can’t blame him. It’s possibly the most important four measures of the entire piece.

“Did that sound good?” Lev asks, eyes bright once again. "Don't sugarcoat it."

“You didn't crash and burn." Morisuke doesn't want to say that Lev sucked, because that's not true. "But your intonation was sketchy and your coordination was just shy of shit."

"Yaku-san!" 

"You told me not to sugarcoat it." Morisuke shrugs. "But other than that, everything sounded fine. Your tempo was steady and you're playing confidently enough, and those are the most important things."

"Okay." Lev scrunches his mouth up into a pouty frown. "But how do I make the rest of it better?"

"Did you bring a metronome?"

"I have one on my phone -"

"Good enough," Morisuke says. "Start slow and be really picky. Don't speed up until it sounds perfect. It'll sound a lot better once you get it back up to tempo."

"How do you know all this, Yaku-san?"

"I've been playing the cello since I was five, I have a practice arsenal at this point." Morisuke frowns. "When did you start?"

"Ten or eleven." Lev shrugs.

Morisuke's surprised that he's only been playing that long; Lev is definitely more than meets the eye. "...Impressive."

"Huh?" Lev's eyes go wide. "What was that?"

"Nothing." Morisuke can't believe he actually uttered that out loud. He's not going to let Lev have that satisfaction just yet. "Let's run the Shostakovich again."

* * *

 

[Every second,](https://youtu.be/B0sA5tPyK-I) Daichi is more surprised that he’s in the same room with people who each have multiple competition titles under their belt. Sure, they’re good, but they don’t exactly act the part. He's played with them multiple times, but he's still dumbfounded by how petty they can be.

And when he says petty, he mostly means Oikawa.

"Why is it so hard for you all to just take a little time one one insignificant measure?" Oikawa asks with his trademark pout.

"It's tied over from the measure before that, so we kind of already are." Kuroo shrugs.

"Yeah, but -"

"Don't you have the pickup to measure seven?" Ushijima asks.

"Shut up, Ushiwaka-chan, we're not talking about that right now." Oikawa rolls his eyes at him.

"Oikawa, you can complain about timing, but don't be an asshole," Bokuto says. "And it's the first rehearsal, we're not going to deal with that today."

Oikawa slumps back in his seat with a huff. "Fine, let's make it bland."

"Oikawa!"

"Oikawa, please, we haven't even gotten through the piece yet." Daichi sighs. 

"I just want it to be perfect, that's all." Oikawa shrugs. "And the movement's fifteen minutes long, we're not going to get through it today."

"We're sightreading, it's not going to be perfect!" Kuroo lets out a breath. "Let's take it from the beginning, no stops until we actually fall apart."

Oikawa's the last one to begrudgingly nod and accept it, putting his violin up on his shoulder. He gives a surprisingly good cue, and the five of them are off.

Despite his stubborn nature, Oikawa is actually a good violinist. He leads the group well, with a sense of unwavering confidence in every bow stroke, and while Daichi knows that for a fact from playing with him on many occasions, it’s still impressive. He’s impossible to ignore, which, along with the hours of practice that he undoubtedly puts into all this, is probably the thing that’s gotten him where he is. He has the first-violin kind of personality and an energetic but cool and subdued aura to match.

Whenever he plays with this group, Daichi feels like an outsider. He’s never been the competition type; he never really wanted to be a solo cellist at all. Sure, he has recitals and he practices his butt off whenever he gets the chance, but whether it’s chamber or orchestral, he’s much happier in a group. People always say that he’s more than good enough to get far if he actually competed, but he doesn’t have any intention of starting now. That’s how it’s always been, and he doesn’t have a problem with it. 

That doesn’t change that everyone else is practically at a professional level at this point, and they seem to know it. Even Kuroo, who’s playing an entirely different instrument than he usually does, still seems like he’s in his element. He probably isn’t even sure about the clef, but he sure doesn’t show it. They all have extremely refined poker faces, a trait Daichi desperately wishes he possessed.

But somehow, he stays with them and manages to hold his own. He's second cello, probably the least noticeable out of everyone in the group. He has Bokuto on his left and Kuroo on his right, and they're taking a solid majority of the attention that isn't going to Oikawa. Daichi knows his part and knows this group, but he's glad he doesn't have to stick out among them. 

They're coming up to the cello duet section, the part Daichi knows he needs to practice. And he's going to stop by the practice rooms tonight to work on it. He just needs to get through it now and he'll be fine until then. 

He and Bokuto thankfully hit the G at the same time, and the note's actually in tune, more than what he could expect for sightreading. 

That's where it begins to fall apart.

Daichi really shouldn't have changed his strings so close to leaving. He knew he needed a new set, but at that point, three days before he left, it would have been better to wait until coming home. But here he is, with new strings and the devilish heat of summer.

His A string slips. He's vibrating on the E flat when his pitch gradually falls lower and lower until it's somewhere around a B. He stops playing to fix it while everyone else keeps going - until they realize that he's dropped out.

Everything is silent for a second before Oikawa, Kuroo, and Bokuto start laughing. They're not laughing  _ at  _ him - wait, Oikawa probably is - but it's still embarrassing as hell, and Daichi doesn't look up as he tries to twirl his peg just right. 

"What was  _ that _ ?" Kuroo asks between bursts of laughter. 

"I don't know, but -" Bokuto snorts before doing a great impression of Daichi's impromptu slide, sending Kuroo and Oikawa into another laughing fit.

"I didn't think it was that funny," Ushijima says.

"Thank you!" Daichi's already exasperated, and Ushijima’s sanity is just the thing he needs right now. 

“Come on, it was hilarious!” Oikawa looks like he's about to cry. “Sawamura, what the  _ hell _ ?”

“I changed my strings last week, you dick!”

“ _ Language _ , Sawamura!” Kuroo can barely talk from how hard he’s laughing.

“You’re not helping.”

“Wouldn’t it be best for Sawamura to get his string back in tune and then we run the piece again?” Ushijima asks.

“Do you not have a sense of humor?” Bokuto grins.

“I just have a good one,” Ushijima says, the expression on his face not changing one bit.

Kuroo just laughs even more and Oikawa’s mouth hangs wide open in disbelief that his archenemy could pull something like that off. Daichi’s glad that the attention isn’t on him anymore as he turns his loose A peg until the string sounds like an A again when he plucks it.

This is the most attention he’s gotten in this group ever, and he’s perfectly fine with that much and nothing more.

“All right, are we ready?” Oikawa regains his lost composure in a matter of milliseconds. 

“Yeah.” Daichi plucks his A string a couple times just to make sure. You can never be too careful, after all.

“Let’s just start at the cello duet, we can work on the rest later.” Bokuto puts his fingers back on the fingerboard and finds his G, and Daichi does the same thing.

Right as they start to play, they're interrupted by a knock at the door. 

“Come in!” Kuroo and Daichi shout at the same time.

The door opens and one of the coaches walks in. Daichi recognizes him from last year, but he doesn't remember his name. He's young-looking and blonde, and he gives them a soft smile when he walks in.

“You're group A, right?” He asks. “How's rehearsal going?”

“Good enough.” Kuroo shrugs. 

“Great.” The coach grins. “Need anything? I’m a strings guy, after all.”

“Nope.” Bokuto shakes his head. “We’re good, right, guys?”

Everyone else nods. They don’t even know what they wanted help with; there’s so much they need to sort out.

“Cool, cool,” The coach says. “Well, I'm just here to say that lunch is in five minutes, so you should probably wrap up soon.”

“Thanks.” Oikawa gives his usual smile. 

“No problem.” The coach waves at them before he walks out of the room again. “See you later!”

“Wait, isn't your brother in group F?” Kuroo asks, drawing everyone’s attention to him.

“Yeah, what about him?” The coach asks before he cuts himself off with a frown. “Wait, you're Kuroo Tetsurou.”

“And you're Tsukishima Akiteru.” Kuroo’s eyes narrow. “Is this year just going to be a repeat of last year?”

“Well...” Akiteru lets out a breath. “It isn't Dvorak. But I honestly have no idea. Only time will tell, I guess.”

“Hm.” Kuroo frowns. “Do you have any idea how the new group is doing?”

“I haven’t checked.” Akiteru shrugs. “The new violinist seems okay, though. If they work hard enough, they’ll do fine.”

An awkward silence falls over the room as Akiteru walks out, shutting the door behind him. Everyone stares at Kuroo, wondering what he knows that they don't.

“What was that?” Bokuto asks.

“What's the only thing you remember from last year?” Kuroo shoots back. 

“Was it your stupid quartet not being able to keep up with you?” Oikawa asks.

“That’s not how it happened,” Kuroo says. “They were all great, it’s just that things didn’t work out.”

“Huh.”

“Everyone except for me is in another quartet together this year. I think the wound is still fresh.”

“What does that mean?” Daichi asks. “Wouldn’t the new violinist be able to set things right?”

Kuroo pauses for a second. “I don’t know.” 

Everyone else instantly falls silent.

Daichi had heard about Kuroo’s quartet’s performance last year, but until now, he thought it was just a rumor. He didn't think that it was actually true. He had been eating lunch with Asahi during the performance, and he didn't see it, but he'd heard people talking about it for the entire bus ride back. A string snapped. The balance was off. They couldn't stay together.

It’s clear that people still remember it.

Kuroo sighs, looking down at the floor. “Basically, unless they can find a way to change it, we could have another American Disaster on our hands.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukishima gets hit in the face with a salad and Lev plays camp tour guide.

Kei’s entire lunch hour is ruined when he’s met with a faceful of lettuce.

He stands there in a state of one-third shock, one-third annoyance, and one-third exasperation as he waits for the dismantled salad to fall off his face, wondering just who did it.

“Oh shit, sorry!”

Tendou fucking Satori. He should have known.

“See, this is what you get for starting a food fight.” Someone else is standing next to Tendou, crossing his arms and looking around as pissed as Kei is.

“Excuse me? I clearly remember  _ you  _ throwing a cherry tomato at me first, Shirabu-kun.” Tendou side-eyes Shirabu with a smirk.

“Even if a cherry tomato was comparable to an entire salad, your aim was shit.”

Kei rolls his eyes and walks away from the argument just as someone else from that table tells them to shut up. Good for them.

He sets his lunch tray down with a sigh at the end of one of the tables, knowing that Yamaguchi will find him when he shows up. In the meantime, he's on his own, and he's fine with the company of his own thoughts.

Of course, considering that Bokuto and Kuroo don’t -

“Oi, Tsukki, what are you doing all alone?”

Kei sucks in a breath, hearing his anguished screams loud and clear in the confines of his own head. 

“You don’t mind if we sit here, do we?” Bokuto asks with a grin as he and Kuroo take a seat at the table, thankfully on the other side. “I mean, we are friends, right?”

Kei shrugs. “If it helps you sleep at night.”

“...What’s that on your face?” Kuroo narrows his eyes and leans the slightest bit closer.

“Before you ask, it’s ranch dressing.” Kei doesn’t deserve any of this. At least, he doesn’t think he deserves any of this. 

“Why is there ranch dressing on your face?”

“Would you believe me if I told you that Tendou Satori got in a food fight and ‘accidentally’ hit me in the face with a salad?”

There’s a moment of complete silence before Bokuto and Kuroo burst out laughing. Bokuto has to lean on Kuroo’s shoulder at some point, and every pair of eyes in the cafeteria is right on them. Kei wishes he could melt into the ground.

“Aren’t you two supposed to be tormenting Akaashi-san or something  _ not involving me _ ?” Kei asks.

“We would, if we could - hey!” Bokuto crosses his arms with a pout. “We aren’t  _ tormenting _ you, you’re just a sourpuss.”

“Or maybe I want to sit here and lick the ranch dressing off my face without anyone sitting across from me and screaming the entire time.”

“Do you even have enough dignity to lick ranch dressing off your face?” Kuroo asks.

“No, but that’s not the point.” Kei would characterize it as more of a lack of dignity, but whatever. To each their own.

“Then what is the point?" 

"I'm trying to get you two to leave me alone, in case you haven't noticed."

Bokuto gasps, dramatically placing a hand over his heart. "That  _ hurts _ , Tsukki!"

"Don't call me that."

"There you are, Tsukki!" Yamaguchi plops his lunch tray down on the table before he sits down right next to Kei on the bench. "I was looking everywhere for you!"

Kei frowns, looking over at Yamaguchi out of the corner of his eye. "It's the same place as always."

Before Yamaguchi can respond, Kuroo and Bokuto start laughing again, even louder than before, and Kei has no idea why. Bokuto looks like he's about to cry, Kuroo's leaning on his shoulder, and neither of them look like they're going to stop anytime soon. This goes on for a good minute and a half, and Kei wants nothing more than to a) know what all this is about, and b) be left alone.

But as soon as Kuroo and Bokuto share a  _ look _ , their laughter slowly sputters out and they slowly get up from the table, taking their lunch trays with them.

"You're leaving  _ now _ ?" Kei asks, admittedly puzzled as to why they didn't stay longer.

"Yeah." Kuroo grins. "We just wanted to make sure you weren't eating alone, but it turns out you're just fine." He chuckles, following Bokuto back toward the middle of the cafeteria. "See you in an hour!"

The two of them walk off, still giggling to each other like there's some joke that only they get.

“What was all that about?” Yamaguchi asks, picking up his fork to start into his salad. 

Kei shrugs. “No idea.”

“Hm.” Yamaguchi hums to himself before looking up at Kei. “There’s something in your hair.”

“What is it?”

Yamaguchi reaches up and plucks something green out of Kei’s hair right next to his temple. “I don’t know.”

“It’s probably lettuce.”

Yamaguchi giggles. “Tsukki, why is there lettuce in your hair?”

Kei puts his head in his hands and groans, hoping that this is the last time he ever has to talk about it. “Tendou was in a food fight and I got hit in the face with the contents of his salad.”

“Oh.” Yamaguchi’s trying his hardest not to laugh, and Kei honestly can’t blame him. If it wasn’t him, he’d be chuckling, too. 

“Do you know anybody else who’s going to be in the octet?” 

“I think Yachi-san told me Hinata’s supposed to be in it.”

Kei closes his eyes and let's out a painful sigh. “So since I'm playing third violin, I assume he's playing fourth.” 

“Most likely.”

“Great. There’s nothing I’d enjoy more than having my ears bleed for another hour.”

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad!”

“It’ll be that bad, and worse.” Kei rolls his eyes, stabbing a cherry tomato and a pile of lettuce with his fork. “That’s how life works.”

Yamaguchi frowns. “Are you just avoiding that you didn’t actually practice?”

“No, I definitely practiced. We practiced together, remember?”

“Yeah...” Yamaguchi trails off, leaving Kei to wonder exactly what he’s thinking. 

"Whatever, I know you want me not to make any assumptions until rehearsal actually starts."

"That's not what I'm saying."

Kei shrugs. "It's what you were  _ implying _ ."

"Maybe."

Their conversation turns into silence as they turn their focus to the salads and sandwiches in front of them. No one's come to their table, and now, fifteen minutes into the hour they have for lunch, they don't think anyone will, but they don't care. They're much more comfortable in their own company than in anyone else's.

"I never asked if you knew anyone in the octet." Yamaguchi sets his half-eaten ham sandwich down on his plate.

"I don't," Kei says, "I just have some suspicions, is all."

"Oh.”

“You’re not going to ask what those suspicions are?”

“Nope.” Yamaguchi shrugs. “I’m just going to let it happen, whatever it is.”

Kei wishes he could be that open-minded about it.

* * *

 

“All right.” Lev looks at Hinata across the table, with Inuoka on his right and Shibayama on his left. “It’s time for a little orientation.”

“Cut it out, Lev, this is chamber camp, not a matter of life and death.” Kenma rolls his eyes, looking down at his DS.

“Who knows?” Lev shrugs. “It could be both.”

Hinata visibly shivers. 

“Don’t worry, he’s exaggerating.” Inuoka smiles, elbowing Lev in the side. “There’s just a few things you should probably know before you finish your first day, just to make things easier in the long run.”

“Like what?” Hinata asks.

“Do you want to hear about mealtimes or free time first?”

“Mealtimes, I guess.”

“Well, you should get the garlic bread at dinner tonight because it’s delicious.” Lev pauses, trying to think of advice that he knows exists but is just forgetting. “But there’s never been enough for everyone, so try to get here as early as possible.”

“You can sign up for lunchtime performances, but do those with your morning group so you have a chance to rehearse beforehand,” Shibayama says, “And you might not be able to hear each other, so make sure you look at each other during rehearsals.”

“If our room’s on breakfast duty, don’t sleep late.” Inuoka laughs. “We made that mistake last year and the entire day was delayed by a half hour.”

“Is there anything else?” Hinata asks, face noticeably paler than it was a second before. 

“I’m sure there is, but we’ll tell you as it comes up.” Lev frowns. “Now, practice rooms.”

“Don’t be that guy who’s always in there.” Kenma frowns, not looking up. “Everyone’s just going to think you’re a dick.”

“Didn’t Kuroo-san see people making out in there last year?”

“I’m sure he did.” Kenma shrugs. “Shouyou, if that happens to you, don’t make a big deal out of it. Chances are you’re not the first person who’s noticed.”

“Got it!” Hinata bobs his head once. “So how do practice rooms work around here?”

“They don’t.”

“Basically, it’s a first-come, first-serve system.” Inuoka lets his breath. “And Kenma-san’s right, you can see how well that works out.”

“Basically, if you want to get one, make a beeline for it right after rehearsal ends,” Lev says, “And if you want to leave meals early, you can try, although a lot of people do that.”

“What else is there to do during free time?” Hinata asks. “We have two hours between master class and dinner, and then an hour and a half afterward.”

“Well, you can camp out outside a practice room and wait for someone to leave.” Lev holds up one finger, trying to remember what he did last year. “You can stay in your room and play card games or something. You can go outside and there’s probably a frisbee game or something going on. There’s games and stuff in the little shelter between the cabins if you want to do that.” He grins. “You can basically do whatever you want as long as you get wherever you need to be on time.”

“You can also try to have sectionals or extra rehearsals,” Shibayama says, “I did that a lot last year.”

“Although, considering who’s in your first group, I’m not sure how willing they’d be to do that.” Lev laughs. “Do you guys remember the Brahms last year?”

Kenma doesn’t say anything, Shibayama shrugs, and Inuoka tries not to snort. 

“What happened?” Hinata asks. 

“It was me, Inuoka, Tsukishima, and a lot of people you probably wouldn’t know.” Lev remembers them all. Inuoka on clarinet, Tendou on first violin, Tsukishima on second, Sugawara on viola, and himself on cello. They didn’t exactly get much done, but they were basically a dysfunctional sitcom family in both the best and worst possible way. Rehearsals were filled with witty banter and horrible jokes, mostly thanks to Tendou, which was the same feeling Lev hoped to get from the octet. “Hey, Hinata, do you know who else is in the octet?”

“Do you?”

“Yep.” Lev grins. “Kenma’s first viola, and you know Tsukishima and Yamaguchi already, they’re third violin and second viola.”

“Right.”

“First violin, second violin, and first cello are Kuroo Tetsurou, Akaashi Keiji, and Bokuto Koutarou. They’re all friends with Kenma and they’re all really good.”

Hinata’s eyes go wide. “Like ‘better than Kageyama and Tsukishima’ good?”

“Definitely.”

Hinata gulps. “Are they scary?”

“You could say they look the part, but they wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Kenma says.

“Okay, good.”

“Attention, everyone, the time is now twelve twenty-five!” One of the coaches stands on the stage at the front of the room with a megaphone. Lev remembers him from last year but doesn’t remember his name. “Start cleaning up your tables and heading to rehearsal!”

The lunchroom immediately buzzes with the sounds of trays hitting each other and people talking as people stand up and make a beeline for the trash cans. Lev’s table is in the middle of the crowd, and they remain together once they exit the lunchroom and head back to their cabin. Kenma’s still playing his DS - he would have run into a tree on the way back if Lev hadn’t gently guided him out of the way - and the rest of them are walking in a line in front of him, talking about the pieces they’re playing next before they open the door to room two, quickly getting to their cases scattered across the room. Inuoka and Shibayama head out together as soon as they grab theirs, waving a quick goodbye to everyone else. 

Lev leads the way out of the room after another few seconds, Hinata and Kenma following close behind. 

“Wait.” Hinata stops when they’re halfway there before looking up at Lev, an excited grin on his face. “You’re playing the intro!”

“Yep.” Lev grins, glad someone finally noticed. “I got a little extra coaching on it this morning.”

"Whoa!" Hinata's eyes are wide in awe.

"It wasn't much." Kenma shrugs. 

"Are you doubting Yaku-san's abilities as a cellist?" Lev shoots a look over at Kenma.

"No, I'm just saying that you only worked together for a few minutes."

"It was at least ten!"

"It was eight, I was looking at the clock."

"Hmph." Lev frowns, facing forward again as the three of them get ever closer to the auditorium's double doors. The doors are unlocked when he gets there, and he pushes them both open at the same time, holding them open for Hinata and Kenma to follow him through. 

The stage is even bigger than he remembers. It has to be in order to fit a full orchestra up there, but even so, it's huge. The eight chairs and stands set up there seem miniscule in comparison.

"Hello, hello!" Kuroo calls out from his spot in the first-violin seat, where he's setting up his music on the stand in front of him. Bokuto and Akaashi are both set up as well, and Akaashi's already started tuning his violin. "Welcome to group four, make yourselves comfortable!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the three-month long hiatus and boring chapter omg hqbb was harder than i expected but here i am i guess???
> 
> from now on, i think i'm going to stop trying to make every chapter the same length because i had a 6k first chapter and that definitely isn't going to last BUT that hopefully means more steady updates?? also next chapter is when things start happening again sorry this fic is so lackluster lmao
> 
> tumblr: [violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)|[hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukishima and Yamaguchi get to rehearsal late, Lev nails his solo, and Hinata makes some new friends.

The door creaks open ever so slightly, letting two pairs of Converse sneakers into the auditorium. Shouyou can clearly see Tsukishima and Yamaguchi trying to get in unnoticed, but fortunately for them, no one else seems to. Akaashi and Lev are still tuning, Kenma’s on his DS again, and Kuroo’s laughing at something Bokuto just said. 

Shouyou tries to resist the urge to laugh when Tsukishima starts slithering along the wall like he’s in some cheap spy thriller, and it’s clear that Yamaguchi’s trying not to laugh, either, even though he’s doing exactly the same thing. They’re almost to the stairs now, and no one’s bothered to turn around and look.

“Give it up, you two.” Kuroo grins, spinning around on one toe. “We all know you’re late.”

"Dammit," Tsukishima mutters, taking step after step up the stairs until he gets to a place where he can set his case down. Yamauchi follows suit, opening his own case at lightning speed.

"So why are you guys here three minutes late?” Bokuto asks, sitting down in his chair again. “Were you just taking your sweet time getting here?”

“We wanted to wait for everyone else to leave the lunchroom before we did so we wouldn’t have to push through anyone.” Yamaguchi bows his head. “Sorry we’re late.”

Something tells Shouyou that he’s lying, but he chooses to ignore it for now.

“Doesn’t really matter, we haven’t done anything yet.” Kuroo shrugs, sitting down as he puts his violin up on his shoulder. “I’m giving an A unless anyone has any objections.”

“Kuroo-san, don’t you play viola in your other group?” Lev asks. Shouyou, as expected, has no idea what he’s talking about.

“That I do.” Kuroo chuckles. “There isn’t always a third violin arrangement for me to keep the group together with, you know. I had to do it somehow.”

And with that he drops the subject, giving a single clear A. Everyone else copies it, making sure their strings are all perfectly in tune. The acoustics of the auditorium send every sound bouncing off the walls again and again, and Shouyou wonders what it’s going to sound like when everyone’s playing the piece together.

“All right.” Kuroo puts his violin down in his lap and briefly adjusts the music on his stand before lifting the violin to ready position on his thighs. “Does anyone want to go over anything before we run through it?”

“Takeda-sensei did say we should introduce ourselves first, right?” Akaashi - at least, Shouyou assumes he’s Akaashi, he remembers Lev saying something about Akaashi playing violin but he isn’t sure - narrows his eyes. “That seems like a good thing to start with.”

“I guess you’re right.” Kuroo’s gaze shifts across the semicircle. “Bokuto, you go first.”

“What do I say?” Bokuto asks in an exaggerated stage-whisper that makes Shouyou giggle.

“I don’t know, name, age, and when you started playing? That sounds good, right?” Kuroo looks to Akaashi, who simply shrugs without any kind of opinion behind it.

“Okay.” Bokuto lets out a breath before he grins. “My name’s Bokuto Koutarou, I’m seventeen, and I’ve been playing the cello since I was five. Next?” He turns to Lev, who’s still adjusting his endpin.

“Oh!” Lev looks up and smiles at the group. “I’m Haiba Lev, I’m fifteen, and I’ve been playing since I was ten.”

“I’m Yamaguchi Tadashi, I’m fifteen, I also started when I was ten.” Yamaguchi finishes as quickly as he started, giving a nervous smile before he goes back to putting rosin on his bow. 

“Kozume Kenma, sixteen, started at nine.” Kenma still has his DS in his hands, and he doesn’t even look up at everyone else.

Shouyou waits through three uncomfortable seconds of silence before he realizes it’s his turn. “Oh, sorry!”

“It’s fine, just get on with it!” Bokuto grins in his direction.

“Um, I’m Hinata Shouyou, I’m sixteen, and I started playing when I was eleven.” Shouyou quickly bows his head upon realizing that everyone else here probably already knows each other and the introductions are being done mostly for his sake. “Nice to meet you all!”

“Tsukishima Kei, fifteen, started when I was six.” Like Yamaguchi, Tsukishima finishes within a few seconds, looking to Akaashi to continue.

“I’m Akaashi Keiji, I’m sixteen, and I also started playing at six.” Akaashi does the same thing, turning to Kuroo to finish. 

“My name’s Kuroo Tetsurou, I’m seventeen years old, and I started playing the violin at age seven.” Kuroo looks around at the other seven people in the group. “You guys seem like an interesting group to play this with.”

“Tell me about it,” Tsukishima mutters. 

“Cheer up for once, will you?” Kuroo grins. “This is the finale, you know.”

“Yes, I know, it’s the last movement -”

“No, I mean recital order.” Kuroo takes a piece of paper out of his pocket that’s folded in quarters. “We’re at the very end.”

“I thought Tchaik would be at the end.” Akaashi frowns.

“Nope, they’re right before us.” Kuroo unfolds the paper and looks at it with narrowed eyes. “The last five are the Dvorak, the Ravel, the Faure, the Tchaikovsky, and us. All tough acts to follow.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Bokuto asks, picking his bow up. “We’ve gotta get going!”

The entire auditorium seems to light up as everyone finishes any last setup and looks to the cellos to start. Lev is noticeably silent, almost like he doesn’t know everyone’s waiting for him.

Everyone is waiting for a few awkward seconds.

“Oh!” Lev’s eyes open wide as he looks around at everyone before placing his bow delicately on his C string. “Should I count off?”

“Go for it, it’ll keep everyone on track.” Kuroo shrugs.

“Give ‘em two blank bars,” Bokuto chimes in. 

Lev nods before letting out a long breath, more calm and composed than Shouyou’s ever seen him. “One, two, one, two.”

He launches into the first line of the piece in complete silence, and everyone’s looking directly at him. He’s clearly well-rehearsed, and his bow flies back and forth over the string just as the fingers of his left hand shift position on the fingerboard. He moves fast, almost like someone put his performance on fast-forward, and he gives off an air of frantic confidence. Somehow, it’s just what the piece needs.

Bokuto joins in four measures later, and he almost covers Lev up completely, overshadowing everything he’d played earlier. (Shouyou suspects he doesn’t mean to, but he notices it anyway) But he has the melody for the next four, and he clearly knows it. He’s smiling, but that doesn’t change that he’s focused on what he’s playing. He’s perfectly in time with where Lev left off. 

Yamaguchi does the same thing he did before. He’s playing perfectly in time when he comes in, he’s just incredibly quiet, and once again, Shouyou can barely hear him. He’s playing the same line Lev played earlier, and he has the distinct disadvantage of not playing the cello, which makes him seem a lot quieter just by comparison. He looks almost glad to be out of the limelight when Kenma comes in, repeating Bokuto’s melody.

Shouyou comes in a split-second late, and he knows it, even before Tsukishima shoots him a look out of the corner of his eye. He tries to keep up, though, and he’s pretty sure he’s back on track by his second measure, even though that’s pretty much the end of his solo line. He doesn’t care about that part too much, though. 

Shouyou can tell that when Tsukishima comes in, he’s going to have the least intensity of all four of the violins, possibly combined. He’s playing loud enough, at least louder than Yamaguchi was, but his sound just sounds bored. According to the seating chart in Shouyou’s welcome packet, he’s supposed to be principal second violin, which makes him pretty good technically, but he hasn’t seemed to put in much effort all day, and Shouyou doesn’t know why. He suspects that he’ll know soon enough. 

Akaashi comes in next, and Kuroo comes in a second after him, and everyone is playing now. The sound echoes off the walls of the auditorium, and Shouyou can’t fathom that in just two and a half short weeks, he’s going to be performing it here, in front of an audience. Sure, it’s just an audience of everyone else who’s already here, but that still counts.

Kuroo and Bokuto’s eyes are locked, and it’s clear that they’ve already memorized their parts. The scroll of Kenma’s viola is buried in his stand, Lev’s looking around for someone who has the same rhythm he does - which is pretty much everyone at this point in the piece, it hasn’t gotten too complicated - and the weird eyebrow raises and microscopic head tilts only do more to convince Shouyou that Tsukishima and Yamaguchi have somehow found a way to communicate telepathically. 

The piece is fast, loud, and most importantly, energetic, and everyone seems to be getting into it.  The enthusiasm only seems to build as time goes on, which probably isn’t great for phrasing’s sake, but no one’s stopped yet, even though Tsukishima and Akaashi both seem like they’re about to at multiple points. But somehow, everyone manages to stay together, and it’s not bad for a first readthrough.

But after a minutes or so, something doesn’t seem right. Someone’s off by a bar or so, and Shouyou doesn’t know who it is. He hopes that whoever it is can get back on fairly quickly, because everyone else seems like they’re trying to figure it out, and that seems to be distracting them. 

“Rehearsal 3!” Kuroo calls out, trying to get whoever it is in the right spot even as he continues playing without a hitch. 

Nothing changes. The chords don’t seem right and it just feels wrong altogether. Everyone seems agitated, and now someone  _ else _ is getting off and Shouyou isn’t sure he’s in the right spot either-

“Okay, stop.” Bokuto’s the first person to stop playing, and Kuroo follows soon afterward. “We’re not together.”

“Sorry, that’s my fault, I didn’t count the rest right -” Yamaguchi starts, looking straight down at the floor. 

“Don’t worry about it!” Kuroo interrupts with a grin. “Happens to the best of us.”

“O-okay.” Yamaguchi nods slowly.

Kuroo gives him one more reassuring smile before he looks to everyone else. “Let’s start at rehearsal 2. Does anyone have a problem with the tempo as is?”

No one says anything, and a few people shake their heads. Kuroo whistles and brings his violin back to his shoulder again, and he counts everyone off before they launch in again. 

They get a lot farther without stopping than they did before. They don’t quite finish this time, but that’s more than okay for day one. They’ve gotten about two-thirds of the way through when Kuroo calls for a break and everyone instantly relaxes, leaning back in their chairs and putting their instruments down as they take a moment to stretch. 

“Hey, Hinata!” 

Shouyou looks up to see Bokuto staring at him with a grin on his face. “Um, what is it, Bokuto-san?”

“You're new, right?”

“Yeah.” Shouyou wonders why everyone cares so much. It's not like he's the only new person here. Or maybe he is, he doesn't know. “Why?”

“No particular reason.” Bokuto shrugs. “I just haven’t seen you around here before. What cabin are you in?”

“I think I’m in Vivace -”

“All the cool people are.” Bokuto grins. “Kuroo has a big Cards Against Humanity game every year with all the people lucky enough to be in a cabin with him, you should come!”

“Really?” Shouyou asks. “Like, is it okay?”

“Totally, you’ll get to know people that way,” Bokuto says, dropping his voice down to a whisper. “Listen, everyone likes to say that you get to know people by playing with them and while that is fairly true, it’s exaggerated to hell and back.”

“O-okay.” Shouyou nods, wondering why people are actually trying to reach out to him. First Lev did it at lunch, and now Bokuto’s talking to him, and the entire thing is just something he couldn’t have expected. “Thank you, Bokuto-san!”

“No problem!” Bokuto picks his bow up again and runs it over the strings, checking for pitch. “Three weeks is a long time if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Shouyou beams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Ha what's this about steady updates~~
> 
>  
> 
> Ships are subject to change since I don't quite know what I'm doing and next chapter centers on something very very important ;) and depending on how long I make it I also might explain exactly why I didn't update chapter three all summer
> 
> I should show you all the notes on my google doc for this sometime because they're basically me talking about how my concertmaster is actually as close to irl kurotsuki as you can get
> 
> tumblr: [violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com) (follow this one I'm really close to 3k)|[hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com)
> 
> As always, comments/kudos are super welcome!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ushijima mourns the loss of a salad and Watari can't stop being salty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The pieces used in this chapter are...
> 
> The fourth movement of Tchaikovsky's [Souvenir de Florence String Sextet](https://youtu.be/g_C1-y7PfaE) and the first movement of Saint-Saëns's [Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor](https://youtu.be/T14LD5E0zIQ)!!

In his eighteen years of life so far, Tendou Satori has met his share of talented violinists. He’s heard some, played with others, admired even more from the audience or the YouTube comments section, and some people have even called him one, which is total bullshit but has still happened.

But nothing blows him away quite like walking in on Ushijima Wakatoshi playing whatever complicated thing he’s working on at the moment, even though the same thing happens  _ every damn year _ .

“What are you working on this time, Wakatoshi-kun?” Satori asks, sitting down in one of the chairs in the semicircle of six. He’s surprised that they’re all set up even though no one else beside the two of them are here, and Ushijima’s clearly been here for at least a little bit of lunch. Did he even eat? Satori decides to think about that later. “Sounds like Mendelssohn.”

“Good guess.” Ushijima’s eyebrows raise the tiniest bit as he puts his bow back on his stand. “How did you know?”

“It’s pretty famous.” Satori shrugs with a smirk. “Recognized it instantly.”

“Oh.”

“When’s the competition?”

“Two weeks after camp ends.”

“Ooh!” Satori laughs. “That’s  _ rough _ !”

“I know.” Ushijima purses his lips in a frown. 

“Don’t worry, you’ll be great!” Satori slings an arm around his shoulder and grins. “It sounded beautiful, Wakatoshi-kun.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem!”

“Tendou, what the hell did you do during lunch?” 

Satori looks up to see Semi standing in the doorway, cello case on his back and arms crossed. “What do you mean?”

“Shirabu told me that you threw a salad at him and it ended up hitting Tsukishima in the face.” Semi narrows his eyes with a frown. 

“Oh,  _ that _ !” Satori tries to ignore the look Ushijima’s giving him. “What Shirabu didn’t tell you was that  _ he _ threw his lunch at me first.”

“Why would you waste a perfectly good salad like that?” Ushijima asks. 

Satori doesn’t have an answer that’s good enough for the question. He feels a strange kind of shame. “... The look on Tsukishima’s face was worth it?”

Semi has the nerve, the sheer  _ audacity _ to facepalm while Ushijima just looks confused. Satori tries to grin it off, making for a very weird sight for Ohira when he walks in.

“Did something happen?”

“Tendou got into a foodfight at lunch.” Semi sits down in the chair opposite the circle from where Satori and Ushijima are sitting. 

“Hm.” Ohira sits down next to Semi and adjusts his chair. He isn’t even surprised. To be fair, he shouldn’t be. “Where’s everyone else?”

“I’m here!” Goshiki’s case shifts position on his back with every step as he runs in, quickly taking a seat on the other side of Ohira. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Well, that’s one out of two.” Semi looks at the doorway one more time before he starts unpacking his cello. “Hey, Goshiki, are you rooming with Shirabu?”

“Nope.” Goshiki shakes his head as he takes his bow out of his case and starts tightening it. “I haven’t seen him all day.” 

“Hm.” Semi zips open his case and takes out his navy blue rock stop, setting it on the ground in front of his chair. "He'll be here eventually."

"How about we tune now and warm up without him?" Ushijima asks.

"Is your A in tune?" Semi asks.

"I checked it five minutes ago." Ushijima picks his bow up and puts his violin to his shoulder, plucking his A a few times. "It sounds right."

When he starts running his bow across the string, it's the only sound in the room, ringing loud and clear over the silence. Goshiki's the first to check his own A, followed by Satori, Semi, and finally Ohira, until the sound dies out and Ushijima's the only one playing. Upon noticing that, he quickly puts his violin down again. 

And that’s when everyone notices Shirabu standing out of breath in the doorway. 

“What happened to you?” Satori asks, trying to hold back a chuckle.

“I got stopped by one of the coaches on the way over here and after telling him I was playing the Tchaikovsky, he spent five minutes rambling on about the Nutcracker.” Shirabu scowls, sitting down between Satori and Goshiki. “Apparently he played clarinet in ballet performances for a few years ‘back in the day’.” He leans over the side of the chair to open his case and grab his bow and a case of rosin. “Did we tune already?”

“I can give you another A if you need one,” Ushijima says. 

“That would be greatly appreciated, thank you.” Shirabu quickly finishes unpacking his viola and putting it on his shoulder just as Ushijima plays another A. The tuning process goes much faster with only one instrument, and it’s done after a few seconds. 

“So do we just run through? We all know each other already so...” Ohira trails off, looking at the music on his stand. 

“There’s not much else to do.” Satori shrugs. “Except listening to Wakatoshi-kun practice the Mendelssohn.”

“That won’t be happening.”

“Fine, fine, just putting it out there!” Satori laughs, bringing his violin up to his shoulder. “Wait, who’s cueing?”

“You are.” Shirabu rolls his eyes at him. 

“Oh!” Satori playfully rolls his eyes back. “How could I forget?” He puts his bow on the string and looks around at everyone else before counting off, sucking in a breath as he lifts his scroll up into the air before he starts playing.

Almost automatically, he can tell something’s off. The two-against-three rhythms in his and Shirabu’s part versus Goshiki’s are complicated, and they’re already trying to match each other instead of the beat. But no matter; it’s their first runthrough, this is to be expected. 

“Should I count for you guys?” Ohira asks after the three of them end the second measure at three different spots.

“Please.” Shirabu narrows his eyes at the music on the page, like his inability to count is entirely the piece’s fault. Even though it isn’t. You can’t blame anyone for your lack of counting skill but yourself.

“Okay, I’ll only be able to do it until I come in, I can’t multitask to save my life.”

“That’ll be fine!” Satori grins. “Ready when you are.”

Ohira counts off the measure, and it goes much more smoothly this time. The rhythms are all together, and it even stays that way when Ushijima comes in. There’s still problems of course - there are more of them than there are of him, and though Satori thinks it’s kind of impossible, they’re messing up the balance and playing louder than they should be - but technically, it’s all fine.

Just as expected from some of the most talented people around. Not perfect, but certainly a lot better than most of the other guys.

The acoustics of the practice room are muted somewhat compared to the auditorium they’ll eventually be performing in, so the intensity is toned down a little bit, but Satori knows for a fact that they can deliver, especially Ushijima. He’s the one with the main melody, and even though he’s playing quietly - admittedly unlike everyone else, who has no dynamic contrast whatsoever - his articulation is enough to set him apart from everyone else.

To be fair, the part is written that way. And it isn’t like anyone has a problem with that.

“Shit!”

“Watari, are you okay?” Yahaba puts down his violin and gives Shinji a look. 

“Fine, why do you ask?” Shinji spins around on the piano bench, trying to force a smile. 

“You’re cursing more than Mr. New York Cab Driver over here.” Yahaba tilts his head in Kyoutani’s direction and somehow glares harder. 

Shinji shrugs. “I’m not used to this piano.”

Yahaba narrows his eyes. “Is there more to it?”

“I mean, this piece is fucking hard and Camille Saint-Saëns can suck my dick, but other than that, it’s all good.” 

“Is it that bad?”

“Yes.” Shinji pauses. “Well, it sounds nice. It’s just the aforementioned difficulty and the impossible page turns that make it suck.”

“Hm.” Yahaba nods like he understands, even though he doesn’t. He couldn’t understand. He doesn’t have anything remotely complicated and his part is only four pages long compared to Shinji’s twenty-one. It isn’t fair. And Kyoutani’s is even easier. None of this is fair.

“Give me a sec.” Shinji turns back around and tries to run through the arpeggios on page twelve again. They’re easily the hardest part of the piece, even though they only last for two measures, and like everything in this piece, it’s incredibly obvious if he messes up. He’s worked for months to get these up to tempo, and it’s not even working out for him now. He’s beginning to doubt that the months of practice even carried over.

And barely a split-second after he’s started, his right hand gets ahead of his left and he’s playing completely wrong notes and he’s one-hundred-percent sure it didn’t.

“Fuck!”

Yahaba looks up for a brief second, and Shinji swears that he can see Kyoutani jump out of the corner of his eye. “Do you need a Snickers or something?”

Shinji laughs. “ _ No _ .”

“Should we leave you alone for a while and work on melody spots?”

“Yes, please.” Shinji heaves a sigh of relief, thanking every god that could possibly exist that he can play slower. 

Yahaba nods before turning to Kyoutani. “Okay, we should work on matching our entrances and releases at the beginning, since it’s supposed to be a single melody passed between us.”

Kyoutani nods, looking at his music for a split second as he puts his finger on his D string. 

Shinji stops paying attention, instead opting to focus on the keys in front of him. He goes through the arpeggios slowly, making sure the triplets in his right hand are perfectly in sync with the octave jumps in his left. It's not easy, and it admittedly scared him when he first got the music. But now, he can at least handle it, if a little shakily.

He plays the arpeggios a few times before he’s confident on them, playing them at full tempo again - and messing up at the beginning of the second measure, but he doesn’t care - and thinking to himself that what he has now is good enough until he can find a practice room later tonight. He has a strategy for getting the same one every time that’s worked for the past few years, and he’s hoping that it’ll work out for him again tonight.

“Hey, Watari, can you count for us for a minute?” Yahaba asks, craning his neck in the direction of the piano. “And maybe spot-check to see if we’re right about rhythms and all that.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Shinji takes his eyes off the music for a second. “Where are you guys?”

“It’s between one and two... do you have measure numbers?”

“Don’t know if they’re right, but yeah.” Shinji turns to the beginning of the piece, knowing that rehearsal one is at the end of the second page and rehearsal two is... somewhere a few pages after that. 

“Okay, it’s measure twenty-five.” 

“Twenty-five...” Shinji flips to the beginning of page four, the beginning of his... whatever they’re called. They’re not arpeggios, but they’re a sequence of chords, broken in the right hand but played straight in the left, that go down an octave every time with a crescendo leading to a double-hand arpeggio that isn’t nearly as hard as it looks. It’s one of the flashiest piano parts in the whole piece, and it’s not even close to hard, but Shinji likes it.

Right. He’s counting.

“Okay, I’m just going to count dotted-quarters, is that good?”

Yahaba and Kyoutani both nod, putting their bows on the string. 

“One, two, three, four...” Shinji counts, off, waiting for Yahaba to pick up where he left off.

He does, playing his three notes quietly, but with intensity, taking two down bows before playing the last one up. An interesting decision, but Shinji doesn’t care. Yahaba and Kyoutani are the only people in the trio with bows, and it’s up to them to figure all that out.

“Why are you hooking the bows there?” Kyoutani asks. Speak of the devil.

“Hm?”

“You’re playing down, down, up at twenty-five, there’s no damn reason to.”

“Gliding your bow up on the sixteenth on three is harder than just playing it down, isn’t it?” Yahaba asks in response, narrowing his eyes. If they get into an argument now, Shinji’s just going to let them sort it out and practice. He’s done being the mediator with those two. 

“It is for you, it’s nothing for me.”

“Then it’s nothing to change it.”

“I’ve been playing it that way for four months, it’s not gonna be easy to change it now!”

“You have three weeks, can you just do this one thing for me?”

“Weren’t we supposed to be working on rhythm?”

Yahaba sighs, rolling his eyes. “Music is a many-headed beast, Kyoutani, you know that.”

“I’m aware.” Kyoutani scowls back.

At least in the quintet earlier, there were Kindaichi and Kunimi to mute all the rising tension, but now, it’s just Shinji and the two of them, and there’s nothing to stop Yahaba and Kyoutani from going at each other’s throats. On a hard piece where Shinji’s too busy focusing on the stupidly difficult piano part to stop a war before it starts.

Shinji sighs and slouches on the piano bench, wondering if they’re going to get enough work done in the next few weeks to have something to perform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr: [violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)|[hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com)
> 
> do you guys know how long i've waited to rant about the saint-saens
> 
> do you


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iwaizumi calls Oikawa the devil and Yamaguchi just barely avoids the worst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to Sean for existing.

“Tritones have never been this cool, Iwa-chan.”

“Hm?” Hajime looks up from his phone. As expected, Hanamaki had sent him no less than ninety seconds of Snapchat footage from his and Matsukawa’s rehearsal, and Hajime highly doubts that they even played the basses they were posing with for the hour. But considering how good they are and that it’s just the two of them, they probably don’t need to rehearse as much as everyone else. Hajime’s jealous.

“I  _ said _ that tritones have never been as cool as they’re going to be in around ten minutes.” Oikawa carries his violin case in one hand and his music in the other, and he has a confident smirk on his face that says that he clearly doesn’t know what the piece is actually about.

“You do know that you’re pretty much the devil, right?” Hajime asks.

“Rude!” Oikawa scoffs.

“Yeah, that’s the entire point of Danse Macabre.” Hajime half-rolls his eyes. This is supposed to be common knowledge, and he’s surprised that Oikawa didn’t do the research. He’s all about bringing the passion, after all. “It's about how the devil comes every Halloween at midnight and raises the dead to dance for him while he plays the fiddle. You’re the devil now, be proud of it.”

Oikawa looks like he’s going to say something, but he doesn’t, leaving the two in silence once again. 

“Why are you two so fast?!”

Hajime turns around to see Sugawara running down the path, Sawamura right behind him. They’re both carrying their cases with them, Sugawara’s in his hand and Sawamura’s on his back, and they already look out of breath.

“We spend two minutes cleaning up and you’re already more than halfway there!” Sugawara pouts, finally catching up to them.  

“Well, you’re here now.” Oikawa shrugs. “That’s good enough, right?”

Sugawara lets out a breath. “I guess it has to be now that we’re already here.”

“Good.” Oikawa smiles. “So are you ready for orchestra rehearsal?”

“Other than the fact that I’m probably going to cry at some point during the Rachmaninoff, yeah.” Sugawara smiles.

"Won’t we all..." Oikawa's eyes go wide. "Wait, you're principal this year! Congratulations!" His eyes crinkle enough for Hajime to know that his smile is actually sincere. Surprising.

"That I am!" Sugawara grins, standing ever so slightly taller. "It doesn't seem like I should be, though. Shirabu’s really good, too."

"Don't worry about it, no one really thinks they should be." Sawamura pauses, sending a look Oikawa's way. "Well, almost no one."

"Hey!" Oikawa crosses his arms in front of him with a frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

"You can't exactly argue with that." Hajime chuckled.

"I -" Oikawa cuts himself off. "Whatever, it's not like confidence is a bad thing, right?"

No one responds, knowing deep down that Oikawa's right. Overconfidence in this case is better than no confidence at all, and while all of them have at least some degree of it, it’s pretty much none in comparison to him.

Sawamura pushes the auditorium door open, leading the way inside. All the lights are on, but the stage lights still seem brighter. The first few rows of seats are dotted with cases lying open, mostly next to the aisles. Hajime follows Oikawa to the first row that doesn't have any cases in it and they start unpacking right next to each other.

The chairs are all set up when Hajime walks onstage, violin in hand, and one of the violists is bringing stands around to all the sections that don't have them. After a few seconds, Sugawara volunteers to help him, placing two stands in the first two rows of first violins before going to the rack to get more. 

"Don't sit down until everything's set up, help get stands for your section if they aren't there already. " Ukai crosses his arms on the podium, glaring at three of the second violins. The violinists in question shoot up to their feet, rushing to the stand rack.

The violist from before comes back, carrying a stand in each hand. He places one in the third and fourth row of the first violins, beginning his walk back to the rack as soon as he got here. Hajime recognizes him from last year, but he's never been a group with him before and he doesn't know his name.

Someone puts a violin down on the chair next to Hajime's, resting a bow on the stand. "You don't mind, right?"

It takes Hajime a few minutes to realize that the person in question - Kuroo Tetsurou, who's now his stand partner - is talking to him. "I don't mind, no."

"Sweet." Kuroo grins before turning around to face the back of the section. "Thanks for getting the stands, Yamaguchi!"

"Oh!" The violist from before looks up after putting the fifth and last first violin stand down with a smile. "It's no problem, Kuroo-san!"

"So we can sit down now?" Hajime asks.

"Probably." Kuroo looks back at the winds, where someone's setting up the last bassoon stand. The clarinets are already seated and warming up. “Everyone else is.”

Hajime shrugs, sitting down and setting his music up on the stand. 

“So what are you playing this year?” Kuroo asks. 

“The Dvorak miniatures and the Ravel quartet.” Hajime doesn’t look up from the stand.

“You’re playing Ravel? Which movement?”

“Second.” Hajime takes his bow off the stand. “What about you?”

“The Schubert quintet and the Mendelssohn octet that was just in here.” Kuroo grins. “It’s a party.”

“I’m sure, Oikawa’s told me.”

“What were you saying about me?” Oikawa turns around from his seat, right in front of where Hajime’s sitting. They’ve been stand partners every year up until now, but it can’t be helped that Oikawa got a lot better over the past year.

“We’re talking about the Schubert,” Kuroo says. “It’s fun, isn’t it?”

Oikawa shrugs. “Eh.”

“Come on, you know you love it.”

“The Saint-Saëns is better.”

“If I was the one playing the solo, I’d agree with you.” Kuroo grabs his own bow off the stand. 

“I guess that does change how you think of it.” Oikawa turns back around again.

“We’re working on Danse Macabre today!” Ukai shouts from the podium. “We’ll start the Rachmaninoff tomorrow!”

Everyone sets their instruments up, accompanied by a flurry of pages turning to the beginning of the Rachmaninoff. It’s only the third movement of Symphony No. 2, which isn’t exciting or fast or anything, but it has soaring melodies and a hard enough part to keep it interesting.

But nothing quite compares to Danse Macabre anyway.

"Watari, is the harp set up?" Ukai asks.

"Yeah!" Watari shouts from the back.

"Okay then!" 

Starting from the front row and moving on back in waves, everyone puts their instruments down if they were warming up and looks up at the podium. 

"Welcome to orchestra, everyone, my name's Ukai Keishin and I'll be directing all of you for the next three weeks." Ukai flips through his score before settling on a page. "Let's play first and ask questions later." He gives everyone a second to pull up the Danse Macabre before putting his hands up. "I'm conducting in one." He gives a cue and the magic begins.

* * *

 

Tadashi doesn't like a lot about being sixth-chair viola out of seven, but if there's one thing he does like, it's his location. Right smack dab in the middle of everything. 

He's in the second row, at the end where the violas meet the second violins. Just to the left of the center of the conductor's podium, he's also very near the center of the winds behind him, meaning he can hear all the parts mostly clearly. The brass is behind him, the basses are on his other side, and the percussionists loom behind them. The sound is intense and overwhelming, and he loves it.

Danse Macabre is a piece with an easy viola part, which makes it easier to notice everything happening around him. The violin solo up front, the harp in the back, it's all incredibly clear when all Tadashi has to play are offbeats. 

Thankfully, there's nothing stopping him from holding back a little. There are six other people in his section, and even then, the violas never have anything resembling a melody on their own. The second violins or the cellos always pick it up.

Even so, Tadashi feels slightly guilty that he isn't contributing as much, volume-wise. Not giving enough sound has always been one of his weaknesses, stemming from his lack of confidence wherever actually performing is concerned. He knows a lot about theory, and he thinks his technique is pretty good most of the time, but whenever he plays louder than a mezzo-piano it sounds weird and he doesn't like it. So he stays back, thankful that there's an entire orchestra covering him up.

Even so, the piece is structured in such a way that he feels like he’s definitely a part of the group, no matter how quietly he’s playing. He can hear how his part fits in with everyone else’s and how it connects to the general tone and theme of the piece as a whole, and sure.

Maybe he should stop thinking so hard before he has an existential crisis in the middle of orchestra rehearsal.

The group keeps going, and everything only seems to get more fun as it continues. Everyone seems livelier somehow, and every note packs a punch as the intensity builds. 

But the actual tone of the piece is like a roller coaster, with loud and bombastic sections interrupted by smooth and vibrato-filled string passages. Sure, everything is slightly off, especially from where Tadashi’s sitting, and the tempo is considerably slower than every recording he’s ever heard., but it sounds good and there’s no doubt that it’s going to get better as the weeks go by.

The ending comes before he knows it, and it’s completely off. Everyone comes in at the wrong time, chords clash, and some of the cellos can barely get through the last two notes without bursting into laughter, but afterward...

Afterward, it all goes out the window.

Approximately half of the firsts are laughing, Kuroo high-fives someone sitting behind him, and even Ukai can barely hold it in. The hall echoes with laughter, and somehow that prevents it from stopping as everyone takes turns imitating it. 

“We need to talk about page turns,” Goshiki says, narrowing his eyes at the music in between him and Tadashi.

“What?” Tadashi narrows his eyes at it, too, wondering how it went wrong. He got it done in time, right?

“It’s not a good idea to turn in the middle of a solo like that, it’s distracting.” Goshiki frowns. “I’d say you should turn in the middle of the second half of the triplets, somewhere in there. There’s enough sound so it won’t take away from anything.”

“Okay.” Tadashi nods, realizing that the page turn did stand out against Oikawa’s solo line. “I’ll mark it in. Anything else?”

“Nope.” Goshiki shakes his head. “At least, not yet. It’s too early to say.”

“It’s good that the bowings are already written in, aren’t they?” Tadashi chuckles.

“Yeah, that’s pretty helpful.” Goshiki’s eyes run over the music before he sits back in his seat, checking his strings. 

Meanwhile, Tadashi looks at all the marks already in his music, mostly telling him to remember various accidentals and whatnot, before writing the word “turn” at the bottom of the page. It’s neat enough, pretty impressive for writing with his left hand. But that has its limitations, too. Tadashi only realizes that as the pencil somehow manages to knock the flimsy piece of paper off the stand and onto the floor along with the last page of the Saint-Saëns, revealing the music that was hiding behind it. 

“What’s this?” Goshiki asks. “It doesn’t look like the Rachmaninoff.”

Tadashi’s heart stops at the exact moment he realizes  _ what _ the music is that’s now front and center on the stand, and he almost drops his bow trying to grab the Saint-Saëns and cover it up, letting out a relieved sigh when he succeeds. He can’t let anyone see that, not yet. “It’s nothing.”

Goshiki gives him a look before picking his viola up again. “If you say so.”

Tadashi stops to catch his breath, making sure the other piece is surely covered. That was close.

He wonders why he decided to bring it in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update!! School is kicking my butt and I don't know why I signed up for so many APs this year.
> 
> ANYWAY!
> 
> I recently reached a milestone on my tumblr, and in celebration, I'm doing a fic giveaway! It's been going on for a few weeks, but it goes until Halloween, so you can still enter if you want me to write you something. All you need to do is be following either my main blog ([@violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)) or my writing blog ([@hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com)) and reblog [this post](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com/post/151689141366/this-is-why-i-dont-make-edits-thank-you-guys-so) to enter! I'll be choosing three winners at 10PM PST on October 31!
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> (Also wish me luck at my concert on Tuesday, we're playing Danse Macabre and I'm sitting first even though I'm technically second chair and I'm probably going to die)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shirabu finds himself lost in the Rachmaninoff and Oikawa shows off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *adds yet another ship to the story* oops

There are a total of thirty-four practice rooms on the camp grounds, twenty-four in Building A and five each in Buildings B and C. It should be enough to fit the needs of the sixty-two people there this year, but it isn’t. They’re nearly always packed whenever there’s a free moment, so the only way to nag one is to get there as soon as possible.

Which, for a certain Shirabu Kenjirou, isn’t soon enough.

“Dammit,” Kenjirou whispers to himself as he realizes the last room in Building A is taken. He glares at the door, wondering if he could make whoever's inside leave by sheer force of willpower. 

He's first viola on the Tchaikovsky. He gets less exposed solo spots than Goshiki does - something that annoys him to no end - but he still has to practice. After all, the group won't sound good if he messes up. 

But in order to practice, he needs a place to do it, which he doesn't have. 

He debates camping out in the lobby until someone leaves, but he suspects everyone else is doing that. And it's not like anyone’s going to leave anytime soon. They're all talented and determined, the rooms are going to be packed until master class, and some people are probably going to skip that, too.

How do people even get here so fast?

Before resigning himself to camping out outside one of the rooms - he hears the telltale sound of a viola inside, he knows from experience that they leave quickly - he remembers something from the end of his Tchaikovsky rehearsal that was set up for this exact moment: Tendou’s ridiculously practical group chat.

After pulling his phone out of his pocket - he's still surprised that there's service all the way out here - he sends a quick text out asking if anyone has a room they want to split or give away. Chances are they don't, but it's worth a try.

_ Ding! _

Ushijima texts back first, and surprisingly, he's not practicing at all. Kenjirou isn't sure what he's doing, but he isn't here. 

_ Ding! _

Ohira’s second, and he's not practicing either. He's helping set up the auditorium for master class in a half hour and he's going to put in more time tonight.

_ Ding! _

Goshiki’s third to reply. He has a practice room but he isn't giving it up. Typical.

Which leaves Tendou and Semi.

_ Ding! _

Tendou’s the same as Goshiki, and Kenjirou doesn't particularly want to practice with him either. No problem there.

_ Ding! _

 

_ From: Semi Eita _

_ 2:52 PM _

_ I'm working on fingerings in Room 2 in Building B if you want to split the room + you’re not too loud _

 

Kenjirou suddenly feels slightly guilty about taking up someone else’s room, but at least he's getting what he wants.

 

_ To: Semi Eita _

_ 2:52 PM _

_ I'll be there in a bit, thanks _

 

Kenjirou abandons the room he’s waiting outside of, walking back through the lobby before being blinded by the bright sun outside the door. No one tries to talk to him as he makes his way down the path to Building B, and that’s something he’s incredibly thankful for. He just wants to get there as quickly as possible and take advantage of as many of the twenty minutes of time that he has.

Once he gets inside Building B, the door to Room 2 is locked. Of course it is.

Kenjirou knocks three times in rapid succession, waiting for Semi to come over and open the door. 

It takes a few seconds, but eventually the door opens, and there he is, bow in hand. 

“Are you really this desperate for fifteen minutes of practice?” Semi asks, eyes narrowed. 

“I’m going to take what I can get.” Kenjirou shrugs, walking into the room once Semi opens the door wide enough to let him in. “So you’re working on fingerings?”

“The Tchaikovsky is complicated, what I had before doesn’t work at a faster tempo.” Semi frowns, walking back over to his spot in the corner, where his cello’s lying on its side next to a chair. “I’d like to get it sorted out as soon as possible.” 

Kenjirou nods, pulling up a chair and a stand in the opposite corner of the room. His fingerings aren’t perfect, either, but he’s fine with that. He can perfect them as they are.

He unpacks his viola and tries to be as quiet as possible in doing so, zipping the zippers on his case open and shut slowly and wiping his cloth over the strings and trying not to make them squeak in. He lets out a breath before setting the Tchaikovsky on his stand. It’s his hardest piece by far; he played the Rachmaninoff sometime last year and everything else is painfully easy.

He flips to the bottom of the second-last page to the part where there are so many ledger lines that he wonders why Tchaikovsky didn’t just put the line in treble clef. He’s done it twice on this page, so why not now?

Kenjirou’s learned not to question stuff like this a long time ago.

He brings his viola up to his shoulder and starts playing, starting from rehearsal P and playing at half-tempo. He never got this far in rehearsal, so he’s never played it this fast with people before. But he has played it at tempo by himself, and he knows he can do it again. 

He starts in third position before shifting down to second at the end of the second measure, and that shift is good enough. It’s at the beginning of the third measure where he trips up, not remembering that he has to play a B along with all the C’s, which means he has to shift back into first. He trips up and freezes.

“Shit!” He pointedly whispers at his stand. 

“...Are you okay?” Semi asks.

“Fine.” Kenjirou sucks in a breath and tries again. He gets farther this time, somehow managing to get the complicated fingering when he has to shift up to the high G. But of course, he shifts too far, and his G’s and A-flats sound more like A-flats and A-naturals, which clearly isn’t what they’re supposed to be.

“Fuck this piece,” he hisses. 

“I agree,” Semi says from across the room, not even turning around from his own stand.

“Glad to know I’m not the only one.” 

“It’s hard. Tendou was complaining about it this morning, too.”

“Damn.” Kenjirou raises his eyebrows. Tendou’s annoying, sure, but he doesn’t really complain about his own music, and especially not to Semi. 

“I know.” 

“Is the cello part as bad as everyone else’s?”

“Mine is.” Semi shrugs. “I don’t know about Reon’s, but I doubt his is too hard.”

“Huh.” Kenjirou turns back to his own stand just as Semi begins playing something. It isn’t the Tchaikovsky, and he’s never heard it before, but he suspects it’s the Rachmaninoff.

It’s only quarter notes, but he manages to phrase them well enough so every single one effortlessly leads into the next, and even though they’re all quiet, he still manages to sound good and avoid the breathy glide-y sound that usually comes with it. He puts a tiny accent on every note to make it stand out, but lets it drop back afterward, like he isn’t really thinking about it after the initial push. He’s not using too little vibrato, and he’s not using too much, and it’s clear that he’s practiced the hell out of even the easiest parts.

And then it gets to the hard parts, the parts with syncopation and sixteenth notes, that aren’t too fast in the tempo he’s playing but still sound intricate and new. His shifts sound effortless, and his rhythm seems perfect, even though Kenjirou doesn’t know what it is. He crescendos through a line of sixteenth-notes until he drops back, even though he’s playing the melody.

He’s up on his A string, probably nothing hard for him, but he sounds beautiful. Every note seems to sing, and his vibrato’s wide and fast and romantic. He moves along with the music and his cello sways along with him, something that he never really does...  _ ever _ . His eyes are just barely open to see his shifts as they happen, but he could probably do this with his eyes closed and sound just fine. He keeps getting higher and higher, and the notes are still perfectly in tune until he stops at the end of the line. 

Kenjirou’s jealous. 

“...Semi-san, what was that?” He asks.

“That was the Rachmaninoff, rehearsal 50,” Semi says matter-of-factly before he frowns. “I didn’t put nearly enough emphasis on the notes at the marcato.”

Kenjirou only blinks. He’s not going to be the person to say it sounded really good, but he could be.

He needs to get off his ass right this second if he has any hope of being the better player out of the two. 

“I thought you were working on Tchaik fingerings.” Kenjirou turns his head to face behind him. 

“It was getting stuffy.” Semi shrugs. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“I actually wanted to  _ practice _ , thank you very much.” Kenjirou huffs, looking back at his stand. He can’t very easily do that when the notes from Semi’s cello still ring in his head.

* * *

When Shouyou walks into the auditorium again, he’s met with the sounds of chairs scratching the floor of the stage and clacking against each other as they’re put in stacks. There aren’t that many people on stage, but they’re all running around trying to clear it for master class. 

“Hey, Hinata!”

Bokuto drops the three chairs he’s holding on a rack backstage before he leans out from behind the curtain and waves. Shouyou waves back, thankful that even though he’s the first person here that isn’t setting up, there’s someone he knows. 

“What am I supposed to do?” Shouyou asks. 

“Put your case down somewhere and help set up!” Bokuto shouts back. “There’s going to be a quartet up here, so leave four chairs and four stands, but other than that, everything’s going offstage!”

“Okay!” Shouyou sets his case down in the front row before running up the stairs to start bringing chairs off. He’s carrying two in his hands when he hears the door open again. 

“Hey, would you look who it is!” 

“Hello, Kou-chan!”

Bokuto frowns at whoever’s just walked in. “You seem oddly happy today.”

“He’s a  _ performer _ , Bokuto, this is his natural habitat.” Someone else Shouyou doesn’t know rolls his eyes in Bokuto’s general direction. Shouyou thinks he’s a violist, but he doesn’t know. 

“Damn right.” Shouyou looks down into the audience to see none other than the orchestra’s concertmaster dropping his case in the second row before he walks up the stairs, smug smirk on his face. “You’re just jealous that I’m playing first master class and you’re not.”

“Oikawa, no one’s jealous about that.” The violist laughs. 

“You’re playing with me, you can’t say that!”

“I don’t want to play first master class!”

Oikawa pouts. “Fine, just don’t make me look bad.”

“I won’t! Don't get all pissy about it!” 

“Hey, Bokuto-san?” Shouyou asks, trying not to interrupt the conversation. 

“Yeah?”

“What...  _ is _ master class?”

“You don’t know?” Bokuto pauses for a second. “Well, it is different everywhere you go, it's a fair question.”

“Basically, a few groups go up to play whatever they have and then they get critiqued on it by everyone else.” The violist smiles. “Oh! I’m Sugawara Koushi, by the way.”

“Hinata Shouyou, nice to meet you!” Shouyou suspects he’s done more introductions today than almost every other day in his life, and he can’t say that’s a bad thing. 

“You, too.” Sugawara looks back to Oikawa again. “Who else is playing besides us?”

Oikawa shrugs. “Not like I’d know. How are the winds?”

“Not sure.” Sugawara frowns. “Yachi’s trio might be playing.”

“The one with Goshiki and that other guy?” Oikawa frowns. "Second violin, tall, loud..."

“Koganegawa, yeah.”

“Is it all set up beforehand?” Shouyou asks. "Like, do you know who's going to play?"

“No, but we all make guesses. I suspect we're going tomorrow or the next day. We  _ are  _ the biggest group, after all.” Bokuto grins. “That should be a party.”

“Speaking of parties, we’re one person away from having all the front row principals here.” Sugawara looks to Bokuto and Oikawa with a smile.

“Please, you know Tsukishima’s going to wait until the very last second to show up.” Bokuto laughs.

"True, true."

The doors open again and a few more people walk in that Shouyou recognizes from orchestra. He doesn't know what instruments they play, but he remembers seeing most of them somewhere in the winds and a few in the brass line in the back. They're all having their own conversations, setting their cases down in random rows before sitting down next to them. Shouyou quickly follows suit, sitting next to his violin case in the front row. 

People fill up the rows ever so slowly, mostly sticking near the front. Shouyou wonders why until he sees one of the coaches shouting at everyone to sit in the first five rows and put their cases on the ground. 

"Oi, is anyone sitting here?"

"Huh?" Shouyou turns around to see Kageyama pointing at the seat next to him, still frowning just as much as he was this morning. To Shouyou's surprise, the entire rest of the row is already full. "Nope, no one's sitting here."

Kageyama nods, sitting down and holding his cello case right in front of him. Shouyou wonders if it obstructs his vision at all.

"Hey, everyone, welcome to master class!" The coach from the speech this morning grins from her spot in the front corner of the stage. Shouyou thinks her name’s Saeko, but he isn’t one hundred percent sure. “Could all the members of the Ravel group come up here and set up as soon as possible? We want to get this show on the road!”

Two more people bring their instruments up to the stage, one violin and one cello. They both set up on stage with Sugawara and Oikawa who are already seated. As soon as they stop moving, the conversations across the audience start dying down. 

“I'm sure most of you know the drill by now,” Saeko says. "Introduce yourself, your group, and your piece and go for it." Oikawa gladly stands up, taking the microphone. 

“Hello, everyone!” Oikawa waves at the audience. Shouyou swears he sees Kageyama roll his eyes. “My name’s Oikawa Tooru, and I play first violin in Group 1, along with Iwaizumi Hajime on second violin, Sugawara Koushi on viola, and Sawamura Daichi on cello. We’re going to be playing the first bit of the second movement of the Ravel string quartet, we hope you all enjoy!” 

He grins again before he sits down, putting his violin to his shoulder just as everyone else in the group prepares to play. He gives a silent but definite cue and they begin. 

Shouyou's eyes go wide.

They shouldn't be able to sound like this with only an hour of rehearsal, and yet they  _ do _ . They mesh together well, without anyone sticking out too much, but every pizzicato comes in suddenly against the whole and creates a sound like a bag of popping popcorn. 

When their bows hit the strings for the first time, the contrast is immediate and noticeable. Oikawa's melody glides on top of the others as their sixteenth-notes flutter and shimmer in the background. They're quiet, which somehow makes every part clearer. When Sugawara takes over the melody, the balance shifts instantly, and Oikawa drops back just enough to let the viola part shine through while still letting his accompaniment be heard on top. 

The pizzicato comes back, effortlessly fading in with what came before it while being entirely different, and they manage to bring back the completely equal balance they had before. Sawamura's bassline looms below the higher notes of the other three instruments while not overpowering them. Every note on every instrument is in tune and in time, and it's clear they're making an effort on phrasing. They're looking at each other and listening to each other, carefully picking apart how their parts fit together and adjusting in such a way that it makes perfect sense. They move together, leading everyone in the audience on a musical journey down winding pathways through forests of notes and rhythms.

Their stopping place is sudden, but after a prolonged silence, the audience bursts into enthusiastic applause. Someone in the back whoops. The quartet congratulates themselves onstage with smiles before standing up and taking a quick bow.

A spark goes off in Shouyou's brain, and he realizes that this is everything he wants. He wants to be able to work with people like this, to create something greater than the sum of its parts like this, he wants to do  _ this _ .

And he realizes right then that he's not going to let anything - or anyone, he realizes upon spotting Kageyama's scowl out of the corner of his eye - stop him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm actually really proud of this chapter tbh
> 
> tumblr: [writing](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com)|[everything else](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)
> 
> you'll find out what's up with yamaguchi next chapter i promise ;))


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuroo discovers a secret and lends a helping hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shoutout to nell for giving me guidance on when to post this chapter before i ignored her entirely

Master class is nothing new. Tetsurou’s been through the same thing enough times that he can see everything coming. Someone gets lost, the balance is off, the acoustics in the auditorium aren’t the same as the practice room the group was in before, it’s all happened before. It isn’t boring, it’s just... nothing new.

So when Saeko finally lets the group up on stage take their bow, he’s one of the first people to stand up and stretch, even if he can’t get out of his row yet. He doesn’t mean to be rude - he likes the piece, and the performers are good - he’s just impatient.

“What are you going to do between now and dinner?” Kenma asks from next to him.

“I don’t know.” Tetsurou shrugs. “You have anything in mind?”

Kenma frowns before shaking his head.

The people on the other side of them are slowly filing out and they follow suit, grabbing their cases before walking out into the aisle. There are a ton of people here, even more than Tetsurou remembers from last year. It’s kind of ridiculous.

He wonders how Bokuto’s going to spend the two hours.

“Hey, Kenma!”

Hinata comes running up to him, case in hand and a grin on his face.

“Hm?” Kenma tilts his head to the side.

“Lev said he was going to try to find Clue in the board game closet if you want to play!”

Tetsurou snickers. Lev playing Clue is an interesting image in his head. Something makes him suspect that he’d play as Colonel Mustard and accuse one character of everything for the entire game before realizing that character’s card is in his hand.

“You can play, too, Kuroo-san!” Hinata pauses for a second before he frowns. “Well, I think you can. I don't know who else is playing and you can only have six people, so...”

“It's fine, I can sit out if need be,” Tetsurou says. “But if you have a spot, I'd be happy to join in.”

“Okay.” Hinata bobs his head in a nod. “We're starting in Vivace Room 2 in fifteen minutes!”

“It's a date!” Tetsurou shouts as Hinata walks out of the auditorium.

Kenma rolls his eyes.

“Are you planning on taking him up on that offer?” Tetsurou asks. “Sounds fun.”

“Probably.” Kenma starts walking at the back of the crowd, just like he always does. “It’s not like there’s much else to do.”

Tetsurou’s eyes scan the row as he leaves, making sure he didn't leave anything. He spots a piece of paper at the end of the row, and while he's sure it isn't his, he thinks he should pick it up anyway. It might be important, and someone might be really bummed if they lost it.

“Go ahead without me,” Tetsurou whispers to Kenma, who looks up in confusion. “I need to grab something.”

“Okay.” Kenma speaks slowly, obviously trying to figure out what Tetsurou’s doing. “I'll see you there.”

“Bye.” Tetsurou waves as Kenma walks out before he walks back down the aisle, wondering who was sitting where the paper is.

When he picks the paper up, he's surprised at how neat it is. He can't keep anything this wrinkle-free, especially not anything in his case on a day-to-day basis, and he wonders what kind of sorcery this person used to keep their paper this smooth. Okay, it might be a folder. But that’s still magic, as far as Tetsurou’s concerned.

But that doesn't surprise him nearly as much as what's written on it.

It's clearly sheet music, and it's definitely a score as opposed to an individual part. It looks like a string quartet at first glance, and that's exactly what it turns out to be. It's in 3/4 time, and it looks like it's in G major. The tempo marking is quarter equals 144, a slightly slow waltz tempo, but it doesn't have the usual offbeats that a waltz does. It's more romantic-looking, full of eighth notes that wind around the main melody, which starts in the viola part and is taken over by the first violin a few measures in. It almost looks like a movie score.

He likes the title: Shooting Star. It's not stuffy-sounding like “String Quartet in G” or whatever, it's more than that. He only has one page of the quartet, but he suspects that if he could see the rest, he'd be able to see the picture the composer’s trying to paint.

Now that he thinks about it, he's really like to know who this is. He has a guess that it's modern, but he doesn't know for sure, and the only way to find out is to look at the composer’s name -

“Oh, _shi-_ ” He starts to whisper before realizing that he’s not the only one in the auditorium. There are at least three people on stage, and they’re all looking right at him when he looks up.

“Hey, Kuroo, is everything all right?” Saeko asks with a chuckle.

“It’s all good, I’m fine!” Tetsurou gives a brief thumbs up before looking at the music in his hands again.

And he runs right out of the auditorium.

He feels like he’s just discovered something that he definitely should not have discovered. He wishes he could forget it, but he can’t, and now all he can do is try to make it right.

When he finally opens the door to his cabin, he’s almost out of breath, and everyone is staring at him. He doesn’t care. He knows what he wants, and until he gets it, nothing else really matters. He can ignore everyone else until later.

He stops to catch his breath before knocking on the door to room 3. He hears a quiet “Come in”, probably from Akaashi, before he slowly turns the knob and opens the door.

There are only three people in the room when Tetsurou walks in. Yaku’s reading a book in his top bunk, Akaashi’s sitting on the bottom bunk squinting at his phone, and Tsukishima’s in the bed next to them, sitting in the bottom bunk with his headphones on and not looking like he gives a shit, just like usual. He gives Tetsurou a look before looking back at his phone again.

“Yo.” Tetsurou kicks one of the bedposts with a grin. It’s not hard, but it’s hard enough to draw attention to himself, exactly what he wants.

Tsukishima looks up, eyes narrowed in irritation. “What do you want?”

“Where’s Yamaguchi?”

“Not here.” Tsukishima looks back at his phone again. “He said he was going to go practice, I don’t know where he is.”

Surprising. “Do you know what building he’s in?”

“I’m guessing B, it’s closest.” Tsukishima shrugs. “But I have no idea about availability. Why do you want to know?”

“I need to ask him something about the octet, it’s important.”

Tsukishima stares at him for a second. He can probably tell that Tetsurou's lying through his teeth, but he doesn't say anything. “I can text him if you really need to find him.”

Tetsurou stares back, eyes wide. He wasn’t expecting that. “You’d do that?”

Tsukishima shrugs, typing something into his phone.

They wait in silence for a minute.

“...He’s in Building C, Room 4.” Tsukishima looks up from his phone again. “That’s what you wanted to know, right?”

“I’m so glad to know I can always count on you.” Tetsurou flashes a smile before walking out of the room again just as Tsukishima rolls his eyes.

“Kuroo-san!”

Hinata’s leaning out the door of his room next door. “There’s still room in the Clue game, we need someone to be Mr. Green!”

“I...” Tetsurou pauses. “I think I’ll have to pass, sorry. I should hit the practice rooms while I can.”

“That’s okay!” Hinata grins. “Have fun!”

“Thanks.” Tetsurou grins back before walking out of the cabin again. Building C is a fairly long walk away, but he can handle it. His case is still on his back, and he probably should have dropped it off when he was inside, but it’s too late now. This shouldn’t take that long, and maybe there’s a room there that he can practice in. Killing two birds with one stone is always nice.

He gets to the building a minute later and looks down the doors, his hopes dashed within seconds. Every single one of them is shut, and they all have the cute little hand-painted in-use signs hanging on the hooks on the doors. So much for that idea.

But that isn't what he's here for.

He walks up to Room 4 and knocks on the door three times. "Hey, Yamaguchi? Are you in there?"

"Just a sec!" There's the unmistakable sound of an instrument being put down delicately and quickly at the same time before the door opens. Yamaguchi's standing behind it, a slightly uneasy smile on his face. "Hi, Kuroo-san!"

"Hey." Tetsurou grins. "Is now a bad time or..."

"Not particularly." Yamaguchi frowns. "Tsukki said you wanted to talk to me about the octet."

"Yeah, about that..." Tetsurou chuckles, nervously scratching the back of his head, and it feels awkward as hell. "I kind of lied to him so he'd just tell me where you were and get off my back about it."

Yamaguchi blinks, pulling back the tiniest bit. "Why?"

Tetsurou sighs, holding the piece of paper he found earlier up in front of him. "I think this might be yours."

Yamaguchi's eyes widen and he goes almost ghostly pale as his voice drops down to a whisper. "W-where did you get that idea?"

"I -" Tetsurou pauses, noticing just how jittery Yamaguchi looks. He might faint, and that isn't good. "Would you rather I just come inside?"

Yamaguchi hesitates before he nods. "Yeah, that would be a lot better."

Tetsurou walks into the practice room and shuts the door behind him. This is one of the bigger rooms, and there's an upright piano in the corner. It's a huge space for just one person.

"Where did you find that?" Yamaguchi asks, sitting down in a chair that Tetsurou assumes he was using before he got here.

"It was under one of the seats in the auditorium," Tetsurou says, handing the piece of paper over before pulling up a chair for himself. "I thought someone might have dropped it so I picked it up."

"Oh." The corners of Yamaguchi's mouth turn up ever so slightly into an almost invisible smile. "Thanks for doing that."

"No problem." Tetsurou points down at the piece of paper, now sitting in Yamaguchi’s lap. "So what is it?"

"It -" Yamaguchi looks like he wants the floor to open up and swallow him whole. "It's nothing, really, it's just -"

"Did you write it?"

"What?" Yamaguchi's mouth falls open for a split-second. "How did you know?"

"I looked at where your name was on the page and I guessed." Tetsurou grins. "Is there more?"

Yamaguchi looks up at him for a moment before looking down at the floor. "Yeah, there's more."

"That's cool."

"It's just a hobby." Yamaguchi's foot taps nervously on the floor as he talks. "I don't put much time into it, and it isn’t like it’s very good, I’m a total amateur -"

"Well, it looks like it sounds nice." Tetsurou leans back in his chair. "Have you told anyone?"

Yamaguchi shakes his head. "You're the first person to find out."

"Then you're secret's safe with me." Tetsurou’s surprised that Tsukishima doesn’t know, but that’s Yamaguchi’s decision. He has his reasons. "Sorry for invading your privacy, by the way."

"No, I should probably get over myself and tell someone about it." Yamaguchi chuckles. "I kind of want to read through it while I'm here. I've never heard it with real instruments before."

"Well, there's no better place to do it." Tetsurou shrugs with a smile. "There are some serious prodigies around here.”

“Yeah, I know.” Yamaguchi smiles back. “I'm just worried that it'll sound bad or generic or cheesy or -”

“Who cares? It's not like anyone else here could make something like that.”

“I'm pretty sure you're wrong, Kuroo-san.”

“I might be, I might not be.” Tetsurou lets out a breath. “Point is, it's yours. That's pretty cool.”

Yamaguchi freezes for a second with his mouth open in a tiny O before he closes it again, finally starting to relax a little. “...I guess.”

“How about reading through it tomorrow night?”

“What?” Yamaguchi looks up at him in confusion. “How are we going to find people?”

“Well, I'm in, and I assume you are, too, so that makes two out of four.” Tetsurou holds up two fingers. “Which means we need a violin and a cello.” He holds up two more on his other hand. “Tsukki and Bokuto?”

“Okay...” Yamaguchi trails off with a frown.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing! Nothing.” Yamaguchi looks down at the piece again. “It's just that...”

“You're worried about it.”

“Yeah.”

“They're going to love it. Both of them.” Tetsurou laughs. “Well, Bokuto’s going to show it a lot more, but we both know Tsukki won't be an asshole about it.”

“Mm.” Yamaguchi nods hesitantly, and he still doesn't look completely sure about this, but he looks much more confident than he did before.

That disappears in an instant.

“How am I going to tell them?”

“Not sure.” Tetsurou stops to think, trying to come up with something on the fly. He has an idea a few seconds later, and while it isn’t the best one he’s ever had, it’ll work well enough. “I don’t think you’ll have to. At least, not alone.”

“How is that going to work?”

“I’ll tell them to meet me somewhere tomorrow night. I’ll be vague about it, but if everything goes according to plan, we’ll all be there,” Tetsurou says, trying to come up with the rest of it as he’s talking. “Then we can tell them.”

“Do you know how we’re going to do that?” Yamaguchi asks, still keeping his voice down to barely above a whisper.

“Nope.” Tetsurou shakes his head. “I’ll think about it. If you have any ideas, tell me.”

“Okay.” Yamaguchi blinks twice before he nods. It’s shaky, but Tetsurou can tell that he’s actually thinking about it, and that’s all he wants out of this. “I will.”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Tetsurou frowns. “It’s your thing, I don’t blame you if you don’t want the -”

“No, this is probably just what I needed.” Yamaguchi looks down at the floor again and laughs. ”Besides, what’s the point of bringing the score _and_ all four of the parts if no one’s going to play them?”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.” Yamaguchi looks at the first page of the score again. “Thanks a lot.”

“No problem.” Tetsurou stands up and walks toward the door. “I’ll handle everything before tomorrow night, all you have to do is bring the stuff and show up.”

“Okay.” Yamaguchi looks up at Tetsurou with a smile that makes all of this worth it. “Really, thank you.”

“You’re very welcome.” Tetsurou opens the door and grins. “I can’t wait to see how it turns out!”

“...Me, neither.” Yamaguchi picks his viola up again, setting the paper right behind all the others on his stand just as Tetsurou leaves.

Tetsurou doesn’t see him let out the breath he’s been holding since their conversation started, sitting there for a minute in excited disbelief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [writing blog](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com) | [honestly i don't know what my main even is](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)
> 
> i'm so proud of this tbh. i finally feel like i'm getting somewhere with this fic and i love it.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Kageyama meet in a practice room and Daichi almost shoves Suga out of his bed.

Everyone else is asleep when Tobio wakes up. He's barely awake himself, but he doesn’t want to waste any time. It’s early, and he wants to get some time to practice before breakfast since that’s the only time when the practice rooms aren’t busy.

He rolls out of bed and yawns, trying not to wake everyone else in his room up with him. Thankfully, they don’t, and he sneaks into the bathroom undetected, taking a black t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants out of his suitcase next to the door. After practically throwing the shirt on, he brushes his teeth and walks out again, making sure he’s silent when he grabs his cello case next to his bed. He opens the door quietly and shuts it slowly after him, trying not to slam it. Once he’s done that, he’s home free. The practice rooms are his.

The crisp morning air makes him shiver, and for once, everything is silent. The only thing he can hear is his footsteps, along with a quiet bird call here and there. The wind rustles through the trees, causing them to shake some of the pines’ needles off, and the sky is a bright blue, even though it’s still early. That’s what summer is, he supposes.

He opens the door to Building A, the nice one with the lobby and the more soundproof rooms - not like he needs them - and walks up the stairs to the second floor. He doesn’t suspect anyone will even be able to hear him up here. Just what he wants.

He hears footsteps, the squeak of a case handle in someone’s hand, and for a second he panics. He thought he was the only one who had this idea, but apparently he isn’t anymore, and now someone else is in here with him.

He ducks into the first room he finds, right off the stairs, and starts unpacking as soon as he sits down. He’s tightened his bow and is starting to tune and there’s a knock on his practice room door.

“Hey, is anyone in there?” The voice sounds familiar, but Tobio can’t place where he’s heard it before.

“Yeah, what do you want?”

“...Kageyama, is that you?”

Tobio’s eyes widen. “...Yeah.”

“It’s Hinata, what are you doing out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Yeah...” Hinata trails off. “Can you let me in?”

“No.”

“Okay.” There’s a thump outside the door. “I’ll just be here.”

“Aren’t you practicing?”

“I just woke up,” Hinata whines. “I’m not going to practice yet!”

“Well, you could at least do me a favor and just waste your time instead of mine.” Tobio rolls his eyes and tries to focus on the music he’s setting up in front of him.

“Rude!”

“Shut up.”

Hinata huffs and then falls silent. He’s at least probably going to find his own room. Good.

Tobio lets out a breath, looking over the music before he starts playing. It’s the second movement of the Rachmaninoff cello sonata, an energetic but dark scherzo. He’s been working on it for a long time, longer than he should have been. That’s what happens when camp music gets in the way of solo music.

Tsukishima’s at least right about that.

Tobio scowls as he plays the first few measures where he actually has something important. It’s better to practice with the piano part, since the rhythms are more complicated when they’re together, but he obviously can’t do that right now.

And besides, he's in his element. When he gets to the more lyrical sections, he can take as much time as he needs to.

He jumps straight to the key change, the switch into four-four time, and slows down just a bit more than he usually does. He doesn’t usually like this part, because it isn’t as fast and exciting as the rest of the piece, but for now, he thinks he can handle it. The piece isn’t the same without the accompaniment, and this is a section he needs to work on. His intonation is... not exactly _great_. Considering how high this section gets near the end, it’s to be expected, and the entire part is in tenor clef, but he should be able to get it, especially with how slow it is.

And if his intonation isn’t great, his phrasing is just shy of complete shit.

He’s always had an issue with that.

But he keeps going. That's the best advice he'd ever gotten from anyone, and it was just a random adjudicator a few years ago. He didn't even remember his name. But whoever he was, Tobio had taken his words to heart, or at least tried to: no matter how bad things may seem, finish the piece with passion and with conviction. There's always time to think later.

And he tries not to think while he's playing, either. He always performs better that way.

He shifts up to the high F, and it's ever so slightly flat, but he doubts anyone not-musically-inclined would be able to tell, and it's a big shift. He's glad he at least landed on the right note. That makes the high A Flat that much easier. His volume drops exponentially as he puts his third finger down, vibrating less and less as he reaches the tip of his bow until he finally takes his bow off the string.

For a second, there's silence.

And then, applause.

Tobio's eyes fly open wide as he realizes what just happened. "Hinata, why are you still here?"

"I told you, I didn't want to practice yet!"

"You should at least tell people when you're planning on listening in on them, dumbass," Tobio grumbles. He's just shy of mortified, and he's never been more grateful for a practice room door in his life.

"But it sounded really good!"

"Don't care, find your own room." Tobio's cheeks are starting to turn red, and he doesn't know why. He's performed in front of people before, this shouldn't be an issue.

But he's never _practiced_ in front of people before.

"Kageyamaaa," Hinata whines.

"What."

"I didn't know you could phrase like that."

Tobio freezes.

"Just thought you should know."

"It's not like I care what you think." He barely manages to get the words out.

Hinata gasps. "Kageyama, don't be _mean_!"

"Go practice or something, you're just going to distract me now."

Tobio can practically see Hinata stick his tongue out at the door separating them. "Fine! But you'd better put some feeling into the Smetana today, no excuses!"

Hinata's footsteps echo as he walks down the hallway.

* * *

Koushi doesn't want to wake up.

He definitely should, since breakfast probably starts in a few minutes and he doesn't want to miss it, but he really wants to just sleep all day. In his humble opinion, that's a better use of a day than all these rehearsals. Even if he’s been waiting for this all year.

But, of course, no one’s going to let him have that because life is cruel.

Right after a particularly loud “Wake up, Suga!”, he's shoved halfway across his bed, rolling over in his sleeping bag until he's almost hanging over the edge. He wakes up instantly, regretting his giving Daichi the top bunk. He can't be exploited like this, it isn't fair.

He sits up with a long sigh. “What is it?”

Daichi’s laughing - that jerk, he knows Koushi hates being woken up like that.

“Where's everyone else?” Koushi asks.

“They already left.” Daichi raises one eyebrow. “You want breakfast, don’t you?”

“I want to go back to sleep.” Koushi frowns. “Can't you just bring me back a muffin or something?”

“No.”

“I have a granola bar, I can go without.”

“You can’t just not eat breakfast.”

“I can and I will.”

“It’s pancake day.”

“Don’t care.”

Just as Koushi’s about to lie down again, Daichi grabs his arm and keeps him from doing so. After a second of realization that he isn't going to let go, Koushi swings his legs over the side of the bed with a glare in Daichi’s direction.

“I'm going in my pajamas and you can't stop me,” he says, pulling a hoodie on over his t-shirt from some festival a few years ago. He loves how cozy this particular hoodie is in all its oversized glory.

“Fine, you and your shrimp print pajama pants can have a nice date.”

“Hey!” Koushi throws a pillow at Daichi’s head. Daichi just barely dodges it.

“Come on, we’re leaving.” Daichi chuckles. “People are going to get suspicious if we’re not there.”

Koushi sticks out his tongue before he stands up, stretching his arms up above his head and then down to his toes. He zips open his suitcase and grabs a pair of socks before walking across the room to put on his shoes. “Okay, I'm ready.”

“Okay, then.” Daichi gives him a look before opening the door. He's actually dressed, and Koushi can easily tell that he's judging him. He's a morning person, he can't do that.

The two of them are alone on the path to the dining hall, as to be expected considering how late they are. They talk a little - there isn't much to say, considering they haven't had any rehearsals since they've talked last - but they spend most of the walk looking at the scenery. Which is fine; everything here is pretty, like something out of a movie. They probably should be walking at least a little faster than they are, but they’re not.

“What's on the schedule today?” Koushi asks with a yawn. “I didn't check.”

“Just orchestra and letter groups.” Daichi shrugs. “We’re not rehearsing the Ravel again until tomorrow.”

Koushi pouts. “But my Dvorak is so _generic_.”

“I'm sure.” Daichi playfully rolls his eyes. He has no idea. “But we _are_ playing the Rachmaninoff today.”

“Yeah.” Koushi pauses for a second. “I just want to get to the Strauss.”

“You told me yesterday that that was the most boring thing you’ve ever played.”

“Yeah, but it’s fun.” Koushi grins. “It’s short, it’s fast, and it’s easy enough to nail it without paying attention.”

“You violas and your easy parts, I’m jealous!”

“Excuse you!”

They go on like this for the rest of the walk, making tiny jabs at each other and spending the next minute laughing about them. It’s the same as always; they’ve been doing this since their first year here, and the years separating them never seem to matter. They always pick up again right where they left off. A year always goes by faster than they expect it to.

“I missed you,” Koushi whispers.

“I know,” Daichi whispers back. “I did, too.”

Their hands touch for a split second before they pull away and laugh it off.

The dining hall is comfortingly warm when they push the doors open, and thankfully, everyone’s talking loud enough so that they don’t notice them. They find a seat next to Asahi at a table in the middle. He gives them a wave while he’s still chewing on something.

“Sleep well?” He asks Koushi as soon as he gulps down whatever he was eating. “You were still asleep when I left.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Koushi tries to give him a smile, but he’s still tired and it probably doesn’t come out right. “You?”

“The mattresses are hard to get used to, but I got to sleep eventually.” Asahi shrugs. “They’re harder than I remember.”

“Yeah, really.” Koushi reaches over to the pitcher in the middle of the table and grabs a glass before pouring himself some water, which he finishes in two huge gulps.

“Hey, Suga, I’m getting food if you want to join me.” Daichi’s already standing up by the time he finishes.

“I’m coming, don’t leave without me.” Koushi swings his legs over the side of the bench and starts walking over to the counter where all the food is. The buffet style reminds him of a hotel, and he likes it quite a bit. He grabs a plate and piles three pancakes onto it, pouring some syrup over the top and grabbing two sausage links to put on the side. The food looks tasty, and he admits that he’s at least a little hungry.

He and Daichi join Asahi at the table again, just as some of the people who got there early are already leaving. Koushi wonders how people eat that fast.

He sees Hinata leading the pack and wonders if everyone getting out early just has a lot to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this time on "two ships i never intended to emphasize in this au but here they are" writing works in mysterious ways
> 
> [writing tumblr](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com) | [everything-else tumblr](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)
> 
> Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I'm thankful for everyone reading this and any of my other stuff, you guys are amazing <3


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goshiki tries to deny his boredom and Tanaka gets his ass handed to him by his sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pieces Used This Chapter:
> 
> [Reger: Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola - I. Vivace](https://youtu.be/_9aFrft67Zw?t=44)  
> [Ewald: Brass Quintet No. 3 in D-Flat Major - IV. Vivo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrwPofDEo_w)  
> [Ewald: Brass Quintet No. 3 in D-Flat Major - III. Andante](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bCn4jfgmzM) (Only referenced a few times, but this is my favorite movement SO)

“Hello, Goshiki-kun!”

Tsutomu turns around in his chair, still tightening his bow. “Hi, Yachi-san.”

“Where’s Koganegawa-kun?” Yachi asks, pulling up a stand before she sits down.

Tsutomu shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“He’s probably just running late.” Yachi puts her pink and white striped folder on the stand, taking out her music and setting it in front of it. “So, what do you think we should work on today?”

“A lot.”

“Yeah, but what in particular?” Yachi puts her flute case on her lap. “We’re not going to get anywhere unless we focus on specific things.”

“Hm.” Tsutomu pauses. “We need to make the rhythms more steady in the accompaniment parts. That’s where we got off the most yesterday.” He narrows his eyes at his part. “That was sort of my fault, but -”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll work on it.” Yachi smiles, taking a headband out of her case, of all things, and putting it in her hair. “I’ve been practicing at a more fluid tempo than I probably should, anyway.”

Tsutomu doesn’t mention that he’s been doing the same thing, but he definitely notices how his hair’s getting in his face. “You... don’t happen to have an extra headband, do you?”

Yachi giggles. “I always bring extras.” She takes another headband out of the Mary-Poppins bag that is her flute case and hands it to him. It’s purple. 

“Thanks.” Tsutomu puts the headband in his hair, liking how he can see better now. He wouldn’t do this in a performance, but it’s rehearsal. Who cares? “How many rehearsals do we have?”

“I’ll check.” Yachi takes another piece of paper out of the folder. It’s marked up with highlighters in three different colors. “Not counting yesterday, the dress rehearsal, or stuff we want to do on the weekends, we have ten.” She puts it back in the folder again. “They’ll go by fast.”

“I know.” Tsutomu frowns. Ten rehearsals isn’t a lot of time. 

“Do you think balance is an issue?” Yachi asks.

“In the quiet parts, yeah.”

“I’ll try to play louder, then.” 

The door slams open and Koganegawa runs in, almost dropping his violin case. “Sorry I’m late!”

“It’s fine!” Yachi puts her flute on her lap again. “We haven’t done anything yet.”

“Sweet.” Koganegawa sits down between Yachi and Tsutomu, putting his violin case on his lap to unpack. “So what are we doing today?”

“Goshiki-kun said he wanted to work on rhythm and balance, so I guess that’s what we’re doing.” Yachi shrugs. “I think we’re going to be just fine for the performance.”

“We have two and a half weeks, this’ll be easy.” Koganegawa grins.

“That isn’t a lot of time,” Tsutomu says. 

“Yeah, but we can pull it off.”

“Exactly.” Yachi smiles as she brings her flute up to her mouth. “Which is why we’re going to take as much time rehearsing as possible.”

“Right, right!” Koganegawa slips his shoulder rest on his violin and brings it up to his shoulder. “Everyone ready?”

Tsutomu brings his viola up to his shoulder and looks at Yachi. The first thing they established yesterday was that she was giving the cue, which made everything yesterday a lot easier. 

“Okay.” Yachi gives each of them a look before she gives the cue, raising her flute up into the air. 

The Reger serenade is... kind of weird, when Tsutomu thinks about it. The viola is the lowest voice in the entire piece; there isn’t a cello or a bassoon or any other kind of low instrument to provide the bassline, which makes it seem pretty nonexistent at times. It’s not easy, at least the other parts aren’t, but it sounds like something cute and talented fourth-graders would perform. And while Tsutomu definitely  _ is _ cute and talented, he isn’t a fourth-grader. Which makes this piece a challenge. 

It isn’t a challenge he can’t overcome, though.

The rhythm bounces along as the piece, helped immensely by Tsutomu’s own part. It’s all eighth notes, going from low to high to low to high for at least the first two lines, if not for the third. At least the chord progression is something new. It’s changing constantly, not staying in one place for very long. 

The door opens, briefly letting the sound in from the brass quintet next door, before it quickly closes again. Tsutomu’s back is to the door so he doesn’t see who just walked in, but he knows it’s one of the coaches who’s supposed to be working with them. The one who’s late.

Yachi stops playing first, almost like she knows that none of them could focus after the interruption. 

“Crap, were you guys rehearsing already?”

“Yeah.” Yachi laughs, almost self-consciously. “We only have so much time, you know.”

“How are any of you so dedicated on day two?” With a chuckle, Ukai pulls up a chair and sits down.

“Dunno.” Koganegawa shrugs. “I’m just doing whatever they’re doing.” 

“At least you’re not one of the groups who just screws around until the day before the performance and doesn’t actually get anything done.” Ukai lets out a sigh as he gets a huge binder labeled "Scores" out of the bag he set down next to his chair. "You guys are playing the Reger, right?"

Yachi nods as Ukai flips through the binder until he settles on a page. "Is there anything you... noticed when we were playing, Ukai-san?"

"I never notice things on the way in." Ukai shrugs. “So what do you want to get done from this? I’ll probably have some contributions, but what are your priorities?”

“We’re working on keeping the rhythm steady and balancing the parts in quiet sections,” Yachi says. She’s taken up the role as the face of the group without anyone realizing it, probably including herself.

“All right.” Ukai nods, frowning at the score. "Can you play from the beginning until Yachi's fermata two measures after rehearsal 2? I just want a preview."

Everyone puts their instruments up and begins playing again. It sounds the same as always; there isn't anything glaringly wrong with it, but it still sounds lacking somehow. 

They finish the phrase, Yachi holds her fermata for a few seconds, and there's a few moments of silence. Ukai looks at the score for a few seconds and frowns, probably trying to think of something to say.

"Is there anything wrong?" Yachi asks.

"Not technically." Ukai looks over the three of them and looks back at the score again. "... I think I've got it." 

"What is it?"

Ukai looks right at Tsutomu. "Goshiki, you sound bored."

"I do?" Tsutomu can feel his eyes going wide. He tried to make it seem as interesting as possible, but maybe that wasn't enough.

"To put it bluntly, your first few measures sound like the musical equivalent of an eye roll." Ukai laughs. "But I can't really blame you, it's easy and repetitive."

Koganegawa snorts.

"But that only means you have the opportunity to do something with it." Ukai looks at the score again. "Look at the bigger picture instead of just what you're playing. Find somewhere to build to, and listen to the other parts and compliment them."

"Right." Tsutomu nods.

"I'm a bassist, that's pretty much the only way to survive in accompaniment-land." Ukai grins. "If the part isn't interesting, you just have to make it interesting."

“Okay.”

“But that doesn’t mean you two can’t make it easier for him.” Ukai’s gaze falls on Yachi and Koganegawa. “This piece has a lot of phrase repetition. Look at the first four measures and the four measures after that. They’re not the same, but they’re close. So don’t make them sound exactly the same.” He narrows his eyes. “And you all have a fortissimo at measure five.”

“I do?” Yachi looks at her part for a second and her cheeks go red as she quickly circles something. “Okay, I do. Got it.”

“I don’t know how far you all have gotten, but there are two big challenges from what I can tell. Phrasing and making the piece interesting is one.” Ukai holds up one finger. “The other is continuity.” He holds up a second finger and flips through the score with his other hand. “The tempo slows down a lot and there are quite a few fermatas, so it’s hard to make it flow when you get back to tempo. If you’re not careful, it’ll feel stoppy-starty, and that’s not what we want.”

“And how do you think we should deal with that?” Tsutomu asks. 

“Look at each other.” Ukai blinks. “That’s pretty much what it comes down to. Listening to each other is good, but in a piece like this, it’s almost impossible to predict what everyone else is doing without looking at them.” 

Tsutomu, Koganegawa, and Yachi all nod at the same time, giving each other a look before looking back at Ukai again.

“We have an hour to rehearse this, let’s work some things out.” Ukai flips back to the first page of the score. “Hate to break it to you, but the phrases need to be solid.” He lets out a brief chuckle. “So we’re working those out one at a time.”

Tsutomu barely resists the urge to roll his eyes.

* * *

“Ryuu, play shorter!”

Ryuu doesn’t deserve any of this. He’s fine with being yelled at during rehearsal - he plays a loud instrument in a group full of loud instruments, it makes sense - but they’ve played two seconds of this movement and it’s slightly embarrassing that the person yelling at him is his  _ sister _ . Who doesn’t even play the same instrument he does.

“Okay, cut.” Saeko frowns, making a cutoff motion with one hand before using one hand to point at Ryuu and the other to point at Yamamoto, who’s on the other side of Asahi. “Your articulation isn’t matching at all, and it sounds bad.”

Saeko’s brutal honesty knows no bounds

“They’re staccato eighth notes.” She stares right at Ryuu. “If you play them long, it sounds like you’re dragging.”

“I’m not playing them long -”

“Relatively.” Saeko purses her lips together. “I don’t know how hard it is to play short and fast on a trombone like this, but you have to pull it off somehow, which I know you can do because you’re my little brother and I believe in you.”

Noya snorts.

“All right, from the top.” Saeko puts her hands up in a conducting gesture. Is she even supposed to be doing that? Isn’t not having a conductor the entire point of chamber music? “One, two, one!”

Ryuu and Yamamoto start their duet again, matching each other almost completely this time. Ryuu tries to play shorter on the eighth notes and he does, sounding quite a bit better than he did at first readthrough. 

Everyone comes in after their duet, a silent beat in between. Combined, they have more than enough energy to go around, and every note echoes off the practice room walls. 

They keep playing for a while before Saeko cuts them off again, significantly longer than Ryuu expected they would. 

"Okay." Saeko pushes a lock of hair out of her face. "This movement and the other movement you're playing are completely different. The Andante is more emotional and wistful and all that, but this is the Vivo, you have to have energy!” She grins. “Imagine you’re in a royal procession or something,  _ that’s _ the kind of feeling we want from this. Let’s try the pickup to measure six again.”

Everyone puts their instruments back up and prepares to play again, coming in on Saeko’s cue. Ryuu at least tries to play louder and more punctuated, but he can’t actually tell if it’s better. 

“That’s it, keep going!” Saeko shouts.

The room quickly fills up with the sound of the five brass instruments combined, and the sound is somewhere between warm and hot. It’s still a hot mess, considering it’s only day two, and everyone messes up at least three notes or comes in louder than they should, but no one’s losing count like they did yesterday. 

They keep going, past the lines the trumpets hand off to one another, past Noya’s incredibly complicated triplet section - at least, it seems incredibly complicated - past the trumpet duet where the tone of the piece changes from major to minor, all the way up to the tuba-first-trumpet line.

First impressions aside, Aone is a good tuba player - tubist? Ryuu doesn’t know the word, even though his instrument is the closest to it. He seems slightly scary at first glance, but he’s not actually a bad person, he just doesn’t talk a whole lot and has a naturally scary neutral facial expression. He’s the first tuba player Ryuu’s ever met who can actually speak out over all the other instruments, but apparently that isn’t enough for Saeko, who cuts off right at the end of the line.

“If you’re not trumpet one or tuba, shut up at measure fifty-two.” Saeko looks at Ryuu, then Asahi, then Yamamoto. “Tubas are big and they can’t play over people that well unless said people get out of the way.” Her gaze shifts to Noya. “And you need to match Aone’s tone and make the transitions smooth.”

“Got it!” Noya puts his hand to his forehead in a salute. 

Saeko laughs, giving him a thumbs up before getting ready to conduct again. "You guys are going to crush this piece."

"Are you sure?" Yamamoto asks.

"I'm sure." Saeko nods once, with conviction. "You all have a distinct advantage of not backing away from the music. Playing loud and having energy is the default for us brass kids, take advantage of that while you can." She puts her hands up. "Back to fifty-two, we're going to finish this movement and get back to the Andante." She sucks in a breath and they start.

Five feet tap on the floor as the group keeps time, all in unison and almost fully coordinated. It’s a lot easier to do that when Saeko’s giving them the beats, but this early in the rehearsal process, it’s surprisingly welcome. Everything comes out so much more than on day one: dynamics, articulations, it’s like remastering an old movie. Every instrument stands out in its own special way, with its own unique sound, and yet they all come together well. 

Everyone starts rushing near the end, but they’re all rushing at different tempos and it’s starting to get out of hand. There is a slight accelerando at the end, but it’s probably not supposed to be that fast - at least, Ryuu assumes it isn’t supposed to be that fast. Eventually when they do end, the last three chords are completely off, with the trumpets playing a beat earlier than everyone else and making the chords echo. 

Saeko laughs as everyone else catches their breath. “I’m not sure what happened there, the piu mosso isn’t that much faster than the rest.”

“Sorry!” Noya and Yamamoto bark out at the same time. 

“No worries, just make sure you don’t do that at the show.” Saeko chuckles. “That’s happened to me more times than I’d care to admit.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, not even the best coaches here are perfect.” Saeko sits down in the chair behind her, crossing her arms with a sigh. “I’ve been in my fair share of shitty performances.”

“Language!” Ryuu quips.

“You’re one to talk!” Saeko playfully rolls her eyes. “Honestly, this is going to be a great performance in a few weeks. I don’t doubt it one bit.”

“Wasn’t that what you said to that one group last year?” Noya asks, blinking once.

Saeko freezes. “That didn’t have anything to do with the performance, they were fine the day before.” She quickly regains her composure with a smile. “Yeah, try to get in as many performances as possible beforehand to ward off stage fright, that could kill anyone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to get to a point where I can update every other Saturday because that's what I did before I think but that went out the window oops
> 
> I've posted my tumblr url in every other chapter and you wouldn't be here if you hadn't read all of those so I'm not doing that from here on out. Also I'm not posting this chapter on tumblr because I'm lazy. 
> 
> I'm not even exaggerating when I say that Goshiki with a headband is the greatest idea I've ever had
> 
> And last note, there's probably one more crappy chapter and then I have great faith in the one after that


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiyoko makes sure to listen, Oikawa takes his time, and Hinata's spellbound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to the ~glorified analysis chapter~
> 
> Piece used in this chapter: [Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2, III. Adagio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNRxHyZDU-Q)

Magic. That's the only word Kiyoko can use to describe any of this.

She'd already known that Rach 2 was a good symphony. It had come up in her YouTube recommendations a few times even before she knew its popularity, years before she knew she'd be playing the third movement here.

But that doesn't even come close to the feeling she has right now, when she's playing the piece herself. Every melody pops more than it ever could in a recording, and she almost loses count a few times from being so caught up in everything. The strings swell in long and romantic phrases while the winds all around her exchange solo lines above it all and she can practically hear the brass's anticipation behind her. Even though it's only the group's first time reading this piece together, it's clear that everyone's done their part preparing for it.

As she said, magical.

Nakashima's sitting next to her, playing the first big solo of the movement on his clarinet. He has his eyes closed; not exactly healthy during a first runthrough, but Kiyoko suspects it's just a habit. He sways along with the music, every note seeming to fly.

Kiyoko can barely hear the strings, even the violas sitting pretty much right in front of her, but maybe that's how it should be. There is a solo going on, after all.

All the other girls in her room were more excited to play the Strauss today than the Rachmaninoff this morning, and she can't understand why. The Strauss is fun, it's upbeat, it's bouncy, but it's not... this.

The orchestra grows in sound as Nakashima's solo ends, with the oboes and the first violins taking over the melody. Their phrasing is audible even from here, maybe just because they're playing louder than they were before. The accompaniment fits nicely underneath, and even though there are more than a few wrong notes here and there, enough people know what they're doing where it doesn't matter. Some people here have probably even played this before.

The orchestra's coming up to Kiyoko's favorite part, the part where the piece drifts away from A major entirely and circles through keys in the way only romantic music can. The violin melody sounds like the much more foreboding first movement, and the way they play it sends a chill down everyone's spines.

Kiyoko's never understood how strings can do that.

She sucks in a breath as the violins come back again, in E minor this time. It's quieter than it was even four measures ago, eerie and suspenseful but still elegant and beautiful. Her sustained D sharps remind her of bells, the oboe solo filling in the gaps in between them as the tension slowly builds.

The violins come in in a wave, like they’re not exactly sure where to come in, but the effect is more interesting than downright bad, and they all eventually figure it out, coming to their final sixteenth note run at about the same time. The same thing happens the second time, and while Kiyoko can see Ukai scowl for half a second, they’ll get it. The second time is louder, with even more energy contained within the slow-moving notes.

Everyone drops back as Kiyoko starts her quarter note line, descending slowly note by note but getting louder every time. The cellos have it, too, but she can’t exactly communicate easily with them, so she just decides to look up at the baton and trust herself. Her part isn’t the main melody, but it’s close enough that she can bring it out as much as she wants.

The line keeps going down, and the other instruments hauntingly get louder, not exactly evenly but good enough. Their rhythms aren’t quite correct, but she can feel the music pulsating all around her, getting more intense with every beat that goes by. She’s convinced that everyone’s rushing a little, but she barely notices, and she doesn’t think anyone else does either.

They slow down just a bit, coming into the sixteenth-note run four before rehearsal fifty-one, and she can hear everything getting as loud as they can get before dropping off, leaving the violins with their hanging high note.

* * *

 

Tooru sucks in a deep breath before he lets go of the high E. He’s the only one playing for a split second before everyone comes in, a pickup to the next measure, but he stretches out that split second for as long as he can, knowing he’ll be a lot softer when he comes in again a half-beat later. He holds onto the note longer than everyone else, letting it tie into the next measure just a hair.

The next measure starts with a B from the lowest instruments, the pickups dying off as soon as the first eighth-rest passes. Everyone else comes in at once, playing the same romantic melody. Tooru thinks he might bump into Ushiwaka from how much he’s moving while he plays it. He doesn’t care. He takes the “molto cantabile” _very_ seriously.

Everyone is quiet at first, like the buildup from the last few measures led up to nothing, but Tooru knows that it’ll be just as big again by the end of this section. The dynamics flow from loud to soft back to loud again as the first violins - and Tooru himself, of course - take the lead.

Tooru has always made it a point of his playing to exaggerate phrasing no matter what, even in sightreading like this, and this piece - specifically this movement - is a perfect example of why it’s necessary. The other three movements, except for the beginning of the first and parts of the second, are all fast, which means it’s considerably harder to make them sound like actual _music_ , but they’re fast enough to cover that up. But here, there’s no excuse; it sounds horrible if it’s boring. He’s heard what they all say and he believes it: an orchestra is only as good as their slow movements.

So far everyone else at least seems to understand that, even if they need a lot of work.

But at least it’s impactful. That’s the only word that can describe this part of the piece. It doesn’t have nearly enough edge to be powerful, but it still packs a punch. It’s the loudest part of the movement by far, and everyone’s clearly giving it their all. Even if there’s still a lot to go during which they can only get louder, the beginning of the section still has that romantic flair.

As Tooru looks across the orchestra, he sees bows flying across strings, bow to tip every time, except in the very back of the viola section, where he can’t see that well anyway. He feels himself beginning to get lost in it, thankful that he’s practiced this section so many times.

The strings break off into melody and harmony, each sound getting slightly lower in volume but making the whole thing seem sweeter. Half the cellos and some of the horns bring in a counterpoint melody behind that, everything weaving together in a fusion of every voice. The tension still builds, and it seems like it’s never going to end. Tooru supposes that’s the beauty of this movement, that it just keeps growing, up until the end of this section at least.

But the part after that has its own charm.

The key shifts, and the orchestra is still growing, getting louder and louder as the notes get higher and higher. Everyone’s vibrato somehow gets wider, or maybe it just seems that way since the notes are higher and there’s less space to work with. Either way, it’s big and not-quite-beautiful but Tooru has no reason to believe that they won’t get there.

Finally, the tension ends with a loud C major chord, the violins going as high as they’ve ever been to play the main melody. After hitting their high C, they start dropping off, getting softer and softer as the quiet and mellow quality of the intro returns once again. The two violin sections trade off sixteenth note runs before the brass and woodwinds play the final chord and the section ends.

The break feels like forever, even though it’s only a few seconds.

When the music starts again, all traces of what came before are gone, as quiet and slow triplets provide the relaxing background to a clear horn solo that doesn’t pack a punch but rides on top of the other instruments like a wave. The low strings’ pizzicato notes provide little pops of music, but they don’t do much, and they don’t need to.

Tooru raises his violin to his shoulder at the end of the horn solo, knowing his moment is next. Sure, he has practically the entire _Danse Macabre_ to himself, but this solo is just as important. It’s not supposed to be eerie, it’s supposed to be beautiful, filled with dramatic but elegant vibrato on every note. As soon as the chord progression changes, he starts in, growing louder as the phrase reaches its apex, dropping down after the high D but being careful not to change his tone. He trades off with the solo clarinet until it ends, getting quieter and quieter with every note.

The same melody repeats throughout the orchestra, reincarnated in various lines from multiple instruments one after another, from English horn to flute to oboe to clarinet, where it all originally started. The beginning of the movement slides in effortlessly, its same tender quality back again.

* * *

 

Shouyou’s spot in the middle is bombarded with sound as soon as the group reaches rehearsal fifty-five. It’s the recap of the beginning of the movement, but it’s more now, it demands more from the players and everyone gives it, growing and shrinking with every beat. The melody hops from instrument to instrument as everyone comes in and drops out, the harmonies floating gently underneath them. After the melody ends, the music itself starts dying down, like it’s all ending.

But it’s not.

Everyone grows more than ever before, the violins taking the lead in the melody. It’s almost identical to the same one that’s been used the entire piece, except it _isn’t_ , it’s even deeper than that. They carry it even after the other instruments drop out and come back in with their high notes until someone else picks it up again.

Another low point. The cellos take a counterpoint melody, having more presence than they’ve had in the entire movement so far. It doesn’t last; the higher instruments always win out, their runs getting more and more noticeable as their pitch increases and growing in dynamic level until they reach the peak, going up still but getting quieter. The first violins are the ones with the triplets, but the seconds are right behind them, quarter and half notes providing backup.

The piece starts to unravel starting from the high note and going down from there, not in terms of the players’ skill, but the piece itself is clearly starting to end now. The flutes briefly have a sixteenth-note melody of their own, but it’s still quiet, just like everything.

When the seconds join the violas and cellos in their tremolo, the first violins take up the sixteenth notes, the same descending melody they’ve had countless times throughout the piece, but as the final one, this one seems different. It seems more melancholy, more bittersweet than it ever did before. The violas take the last of the sixteenth notes with a simple pizzicato background, and it looks like they’re going to die off and let the piece end right there.

But they don’t, growing briefly at the last second before the horns take over along with the rest of the strings and the clarinets, giving a final punch when there are only six measures left. The suspended chord hangs over in a way that would make any audience member lean forward in their seat just a little before the chord resolves itself, dying down once again. A final five-seven chord resolves into a quiet A major chord as everyone else drops out, leaving only four sections playing. Shouyou’s isn’t one of them, and he’s glad to just watch the final notes play out. The low strings’ pizzicato gets slower, they play a final A, and just like that, it’s over.

It isn’t until Ukai finally brings the baton down that Shouyou realizes that he hasn’t stopped to breathe for at least forty seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I don't get something else out before Sunday, Merry Christmas to everyone to celebrates it! (I'll try to have another chapter up by the end of the year, chapter 12 seems like it's going to be one of the ones that'll be easier to write. As in, not this one. Yikes.)
> 
> If you're this far into the story, you've seen my tumblr ten times at least, so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ (but if you want to talk to me about anything, shoot me an ask or a message or something, I'm here)
> 
> Also next chapter, get ready for my predictable ass to reveal itself


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world's moving too fast for Tsukishima to keep up with, but it might be better that way.

That night starts out normal enough. But for once in his life, Kei’s glad it doesn’t stay that way.

He's sitting in the quiet sanctity of his room, just like he was last night and just like he's planning to for the rest of his three weeks here. At least, that was the plan until tonight.

He has a book open, something Yamaguchi recommended to him a few months ago that he's only gotten around to now. There's cell service here, but it isn't great and he doesn't want to use all his data for the month at once, so he's limited to the music he already has on his phone. There's a lot, but he's heard it all before, and he's had most of it for so long that it's far from interesting. Oh well. 

He's never taken advantage of the practice rooms as much as he probably should. He's never had the resolve to fight with someone over them, and since they're all full all the time, he's never gone. Yamaguchi's been in there every other day for the past three years, though, and the practice time is obviously helping his confidence, at least a little. Over the years, it's started to show.

Kei and Yamaguchi are completely alone in the room, sitting in their respective bunks and not talking as much as they usually do. Kei's surprised Yaku isn't here, but he doesn't care much one way or the other.

Yamaguchi's writing something down in the top bunk, interrupted every so often by barely audible singing. Kei guesses it's fingerings, but he can't tell for sure. The lines he does hear don't sound familiar. Maybe it's just because he isn't familiar with the viola part.

"There you two are!" The door slams open, revealing none other than Kuroo and Bokuto on the other side. They're both grinning in a way that has Kei worried. 

"Where else would we be?" Kei asks. "What do you want now?"

"I need you two to do me a favor." Kuroo's still grinning, and it's clear that he's obviously planning something. "Grab your instruments and follow me."

Kei blinks. He's not entirely sure what's going on, and while he wants to find out, that's drowned out by the side of him that thinks this is going to be a bad idea.

Yamaguchi's already climbing down the ladder, swinging down to grab his viola case in the corner as soon as his feet touch the ground. He's carrying a white folder in his other hand that Kei immediately notices, mostly because the binder he keeps most of his music in is navy blue. 

Kei still doesn't know what to do.

"Come on!" Yamaguchi smiles. He's already standing at the door, just waiting for Kei to get off his ass. "How bad can it be?"

Kei shrugs, getting out of the bed and grabbing his things before following the other three outside. He feels like the other three have a secret that they can't tell him for whatever reason, and he's wary for the whole walk over to Building B.

His suspicions are at least somewhat confirmed when Yamaguchi tells Kuroo something in an inaudible whisper. Kuroo shakes his head and whispers something else back that Kei can't even try to hear, let alone understand. 

What the hell is going on?

Kuroo knocks on the door to Room 4 and waits for a second before someone else comes and opens it. That person happens to be Lev, of all people. Kei's surprised for a second before he realizes that Kuroo probably asked him to hold onto the room until he got there. That's technically cheating, but a common enough practice that no one really cares. Lev says that he'll try to pack up quickly and let's everyone else inside. 

The room is slightly chilly but bearable enough as everyone starts pulling up chairs and unpacking instruments. Bokuto pulls up four stands before taking Lev's chair once he leaves. Kuroo takes longer than everyone else, and once they're all unpacked, they just sit there waiting for him. Yamaguchi looks weirdly nervous.

"So." Kuroo sits down, setting his violin down under his chair. "You're probably wondering why I asked you to come here." 

"I'm wondering why you're being so vague, but continue." Kei narrows his eyes and tries to figure out what Kuroo's thinking. It's no use. 

Kuroo chuckles. "You'll see."

That's even more vague than before. 

"Now, you're basically here to sightread a quartet." Kuroo grins in spite of a confused "Haah?" from Bokuto. "I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, but it will in just a few seconds, trust me. But first." His focus shifts to Kei as his grin turns more sinister. Well, as sinister as Kuroo can get. "You're playing first violin for this reading."

"Excuse me,  _ what _ ." Kei blinks. He's even more confused now than he was before, and considering everything that's happened in the past minute, that's saying something. "Why does it matter?" As much as he hates to admit it, Kuroo's a much better violinist, and giving that distinction so much importance for something as seemingly-unimportant as this doesn't make any sense.

Kuroo's expression doesn't change one bit. 

"Should I...?" Yamaguchi cuts in. Kei has no idea what he's doing, either. 

"Yeah, go ahead." Kuroo nods. 

"Okay." Yamaguchi picks up and opens the white folder, taking a few pieces of paper out and handing them to everybody in turn. Why does he have the parts? Wasn't this Kuroo's idea -

It takes approximately half a second for Kei to realize what's going on once he has the first violin part in his hands. He understands why he's playing first and not second, why Kuroo was avoiding answering his questions, why Yamaguchi had the parts. It all makes so much more sense now.

That doesn't mean it doesn't surprise him, though. 

"Yamaguchi -"

"I know." Yamaguchi's blushing now, and for good reason. "Can we talk later?"

"Okay..." Kei hesitantly nods. Why later? Why not now?

He still has so many questions.

"Let's run it before we start asking questions," Kuroo says, just as Bokuto's about to open his mouth and say something. 

Violin in hand, Kei looks at the part and tries to notice whatever he can before he starts playing, besides the obvious. The obvious being that his best friend actually _ wrote _ this without him ever knowing about it. But of course, that's what he gets stuck on, and he makes a mental note to apologize to Yamaguchi later for how bad this sounds.

"What tempo are we taking?" Kuroo asks Yamaguchi, who still looks like he's about to faint. 

"Um, it's a slow waltz tempo, so..." Yamaguchi starts tapping out a beat on his thigh. "Something like that."

"All right." Kuroo brings his violin up to his shoulder, everyone else quickly getting ready after him. "Take it away."

Yamaguchi sucks in a breath and cues for no one but himself, playing completely alone for the first four measures. Did he actually write this? He'd  _ never  _ volunteer to play a solo alone, he's terrified of just a soli. He sounds hesitant, he sounds scared, but he sounds beautiful and talented and -

Kei misses his entrance, even though it’s a solo of his own. He hastily comes in and plays his four notes before the others start playing along with him, and he’s instantly absorbed in the harmonies the four instruments create together. He’s usually a good sightreader, he can usually stay in time and he's usually the one who keeps everyone on track but now he's just as bad - no,  _ worse _ than everyone else.

Is he biased? Definitely. But that sure as hell doesn't give him an excuse.

He narrows his eyes and looks at the music, taking over the melody like he's meant to. He owes it to Yamaguchi to at least make that sound good. He adds more vibrato than he usually does; it's slow enough for him to take a little time.

The piece takes on a minor tone, sending a chill down Kei’s spine. His notes get higher, floating above everyone else’s like twinkling stars. Of course they do. There’s no way they can’t.

After that, he falls into the music in a way he’s never done before. He notices everything that could barely count as counterpoint, how the instruments run together in a way that he almost can’t tell that they’re four separate voices, how they pass the melody back and forth between each other at a speed he can barely keep up with but can hear perfectly. Even if the playing itself isn’t perfect, the music speaks volumes through key changes and rhythms and... and  _ music _ .

It sounds like something out of a movie, drawing him in and keeping him in its clutches the entire time. He doesn’t know how he’s able to keep playing.

The ending is full of energy, a key change that no one expected, and melodies that have stopped floating and instead soar through the quartet, accompanied by swells of sound and wide and fast vibrato that Kei doesn’t even have to try to bring out. It comes automatically. The resolution comes just as easily, getting quieter and quieter until Kei’s the only one still playing, holding a single high G in silence. He can feel his tone beginning to get less consistent and more squeaky as he reaches the tip of his bow, and he takes another bow to make sure that doesn’t happen, even though it isn’t written into the music. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Three chords end the piece from the rest of the instruments while he’s holding the note. G major. C minor. G major again. They all fade out until Kei gives the final cue, leaving the four of them to marvel in what just happened.

It’s completely silent for a second or two. Everyone’s eyes are wide, and Kei’s glad he’s not the only one before realizing that there’s no way anyone else could be as surprised as he is.

He doesn’t say a word when Kuroo and Bokuto start gushing about it, and he wants to. He just has no idea what to say and he doubts his mouth will cooperate. He’s speechless, whether he wants to admit it or not.

“We should perform it!” Bokuto says. 

_ What? _

“No!” Yamaguchi’s cheeks are bright red, his eyes wide for a second before he looks down at the floor. “Sorry. I just don’t think it’s good enough -”

“Of course it’s good enough!” Bokuto laughs. “Tsukishima can’t breathe!”

“Why are you bringing me into this?” Kei asks. Yes, breathing is slightly difficult at the moment, but that’s nothing that should be brought into an argument. At least, not unless Yamaguchi’s agreeing to it.

“He’s right.” Kuroo grins. “It’s a really good piece.”

“People will love it!” Bokuto adds on. 

“Don’t pressure him into it,” Kei mumbles. He kind of wants to perform it, too, but he doesn’t want Yamaguchi to get even worse stage fright recital day than he already will with his huge part in the Smetana. It’s more than good, it’s amazing, but that shouldn’t come at his expense. 

“Right.” Bokuto quickly regains his composure, or at least tries to. “Sorry. It’s your choice!”

“Just consider it,” Kuroo chimes in. 

“I will.” Yamaguchi nods before starting to pack his viola up. “Thanks for doing this, by the way.”

“You’re welcome,” Kuroo says.

“It’s our pleasure!” Bokuto grins. 

Yamaguchi smiles, reaching over to everyone’s stands to take the parts back and put them in the folder. He still looks happy after everyone’s packed up, when they’re all walking back to the cabin together. 

“Can we talk?” Kei asks as soon as he and Yamaguchi are back in their room. They’re still alone, thank goodness. 

“What about?” Yamaguchi asks, even though it’s clear that he knows exactly what Kei’s about to say. 

“How long have you been working on that?”

“The quartet?” Yamaguchi pauses to think. “Six months, give or take.” His eyes widen as he looks up at Kei. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, it’s -”

“That doesn’t matter. I just had no idea.”

“Oh.” Yamaguchi smiles, only barely. “Did you like it?”

“Bokuto-san said that I couldn’t breathe and he was right, what do you think?” Kei asks. “I liked it.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Kei nods. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”  
“I don’t know, I just thought...” Yamaguchi trails off. “I just thought it wouldn’t be as good as it sounded in my head, you know?”

“Was it as good?”

“Yeah, it was amazing.” Yamaguchi’s eyes sparkle in the light coming from the sunset outside. “I’m glad I did it.” 

“It made my night more interesting than it would have been.” Kei shrugs. “Can I have the parts for tonight?”

“...Yeah, why?” Yamaguchi asks.

“Writing out fingerings, mostly.”

“But why -?”

“I might only say this once in my life, but Kuroo-san and Bokuto-san are right.” Kei smirks. “I wouldn’t mind performing this, which makes it a three-to-one majority, but I’ll only count myself as part of that majority if you’re part of it.”

Yamaguchi stops dead for a second before his eyes crinkle and he smiles a big toothy grin. “I’ll think about it, I promise!”

“Okay,” Kei says, sitting down in his bottom bunk again. He blinks, feeling like he’s forgetting something. “Yamaguchi.”

“Yeah?”

Kei takes his phone out again. “That was beautiful.” He tries to make it sound nonchalant, like it’s completely obvious, mostly to avoid embarrassing himself. 

And from the way both of their cheeks get slightly redder, it clearly doesn’t work. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Someone's falling in loooooove~~
> 
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> 
> I lied. I did get the new chapter up by Christmas. I don't know how I did it but I wrote Chapter 12 in one day and it was actually not that bad! (I guess I was just hyping up for it so much that I knew exactly what I wanted to do) So Merry Christmas everybody! I doubt I'll be posting anything else until 2017, so see you then!
> 
> Tumblr: [violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)|[hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com)
> 
> Feel free to talk to me on either about anything! <3
> 
> When did this become an austin and ally au wtf


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tendou's a horrible flirt and Ennoshita has an ear for drama.

“So...” Tendou muses. 

“So?” Ushijima tilts his head to the side in confusion. Eita’s just as confused as he is.

“Do you have a map?” Tendou asks with a smirk. “Because I’m getting lost in your eyes.”

“Tendou, what the fu-”

“Eitaaaa, shhhh!” Eita swears he can feel Tendou’s spit on his face. Or at least on his cello. Gross. 

“No...?” Ushijima just looks more confused than before. “I don’t...?”

“Wakatoshi-kun, you’re so  _ dense _ !” Tendou laughs.

“Or maybe he’s just done with your flirting bullshit,” Shirabu chimes in.

“Hm...” Tendou puts his hand to his forehead and scans the room like he’s looking for something. “Kenji-kun, I can’t find where I asked for your opinion.”

“Tendou-san, you’re an asshole.”

“I know.”

“We’re in the middle of rehearsal, cut it out.”

“It’s day  _ three _ .” Tendou rolls his eyes. “You guys are taking this too seriously. We have ten more rehearsals before the performance, not counting if we meet up on weekends. We’ll be fine!”

“Famous last words,” Shirabu mutters.

“We should at least run through the Tchaikovsky once,” Ohira says. 

“That’s what I’m saying,” Shirabu adds.

“Same.” Eita nods.

“Okay, fine, I’ll run through it once.” Tendou holds up one finger. “That’s it.”

“What’s with you today?” Semi asks.

Tendou shrugs before picking his violin up off the ground in front of his chair. “I don’t know.” He opens his folder - bright purple with pink stripes and no less than five cartoon puppies on it - and gets his music out before bringing the violin up to his shoulder. He makes sure everyone’s ready, gives a quick cue, and they’re off.

No matter what their personalities are like, everyone in this room is  _ good _ . While most groups don’t even have the individual players’ problems worked out, they’ve had everything down since the beginning. Every note is in tune, every rhythm steady, and everyone seems to have a general idea of where they fit in. Sure, there are balance issues and articulation doesn’t exactly match up, but it sounds better than everyone else.

Eita’s still pissed that they didn’t get the finale spot this year. The Mendelssohn group isn’t even that good.

Whatever. Second last isn’t bad by any stretch. 

They're still playing a little under tempo, though over the past few days they've worked it up a lot from where they started. Eita wonders where they're going to go from here. Three weeks is a long time, they can do practically whatever they want if they put their minds to it. 

But they're by no means perfect. Even if they're close, there's always something else to work on, something to make even better. Perfection doesn't exist, but potential always will. And they have a ton of it.

The melody seems to bounce as Eita plays it, full of two-note slurs and hooked bows. It sounds delicate - it has to, it only grows from here - but still ferocious, like it could kill you at any moment. The sixteenth notes change that entirely; Eita digs into the string, trying to bring the notes out in a crescendo. The dynamic contrast makes the movement - it gives it its drama, its flair, all the things that make the finale of Souvenir de Florence...  _ the finale of Souvenir de Florence. _

The violas launch into their duet line, and Goshiki’s rushing. A lot. It seems like everyone can tell, but no one bats an eye. They just let him keep going, assuming that he can make up for it later. Shirabu’s melody line overshadows him anyway. Eita’s part here is simple and stays in the background, unlike Goshiki on his right and Reon on his left. He just provides the callback that completes everything else.

Right before the key change, everyone gets slightly quieter in preparation, still keeping the speed and the energy going but waiting to spring at any moment. That moment being in a measure or two.

“Can we just skip to the end?” Tendou asks, interrupting the flow and cutting everyone off. “We've only played that  _ once _ . The ending needs work.”

“Excuse you, that was a solo line.” Eita crosses his arms. That line is one of the most interesting spots in his entire part, how could Tendou just ruin it like that?

“No it’s not, Wakatoshi-kun’s playing it, too.” Tendou side-eyes Ushijima with a smile. “Isn't that right, sunshine?”

“I do have the melody there -”

“And you have it later on, too, right?”

Ushijima pauses for a second before he nods.

“But I don't.” Eita frowns. In fact, it’s Tendou who takes over the lower octave later. The irony.

“Aww, Semisemi!” Tendou grins. “I'm sure you sound beautiful, but this is the greater good we’re talking about.” 

“You were the one who said that you only wanted to run this once before flirting with Wakatoshi for the rest of this hour-and-a-half-long rehearsal.”

“Well, we’re running through it now, aren't we?” Tendou flips through his music. “Where's that D Major part anyway, after N, right?”

“I think so,” Goshiki says, voice overshadowed by the sound of six different sets of paper being flipped. 

“Okay, let’s go!” Tendou grins, quickly bringing his violin up again. “And a one, two, three -”

“The piece is in two, Tendou,” Ushijima says, narrowing his eyes at the part.

“Wakatoshi-kun, I  _ know _ that!” Tendou laughs. “If you're so stubborn about timing, you can cue.”

Ushijima nods, bobbing his scroll up and down in rhythm before taking a huge breath, practically the most noticeable cue in the world. Eita’s grateful.

He shares a rhythm with Shirabu, a simple eighth-two-sixteenths-eighth-eighth that repeats over and over again in different harmonies while the violins swell in the higher register. It’s the same melody from earlier, tying the movement together in an ending that's powerful but keeps building right until the last note.

The key changes again, and the hell begins.

Eita hates playing octaves, especially when they’re in higher positions. If they’re just slightly out of tune, people will notice. And these last for a whole line of his part. It’s not even the hardest part of the piece, but in comparison to Ohira’s syncopated rhythms and the violas’ sixteenth runs and the violins’ melodies up top - again - it just sounds so boring. And it’s not easy boring, either. It’s hard to get the notes in tune, it’s hard to keep them steady, they’re hard to pull off.

Every instrument has its own part at this section. The violins have the melody, the violas are providing backup in the form of trill-y sixteenths, and the cellos have quarter notes. Well, they’re tied over quarter notes, so they’re more like half notes, and that’s even worse. They’re just playing a descending line, and it overstays its welcome.

Finally, it ends, and the true ending begins. Everyone drops down to a piano again, but the tempo doesn’t increase like it should. They still have to work that out. The cellos provide counterpoint to the violins and the violas, playing the same motif that’s popped up throughout the movement. And Eita’s part, being much higher, stands out a lot more than he wants it to. Whatever, he can deal with that. 

Eventually, everyone starts playing sixteenth notes for a few measures before settling on a nice long A for a few measures. Goshiki and Tendou both come out of it early, which doesn’t surprise Eita all that much - as much as he likes them, if anyone were to rush it, it would be them - but they get back on track quickly as soon as everyone else starts trading off descending lines. 

The instrumentation changes a little bit after that. It’s Shirabu who gets to double Ushijima’s line instead of Tendou, and Shirabu looks weirdly proud of it. He’s playing louder, he’s using more bow, and he’s generally accenting his notes a lot more. 

The piu vivace isn’t a piu vivace at all, it’s just the same allegro they’ve been playing this whole time. Eita’s glad that they’re not speeding up yet; his part is all string crossing and it’s gross and he needs to work on it but until then he’s stuck. Eventually that fades into sixteenth-note exchanges with the higher voices, building and building higher and higher to Ushijima’s highest note in the whole movement. Well, Eita assumes it’s his highest note, because it’s...  _ really high _ . Of course Ushijima’s the only person who can play a note like that while minimizing the squeak.

Everyone finally plays the same rhythm in sync, twice before repeating the first half three times. It gets bigger every time, and the noise echoes across the room. The last eight notes all pack a punch, with a lot of empty space between them to let the notes ring. The first five alternate between high, low, high, low, and high again before the last three chords, the biggest of them all, are just low D chords. 

There’s a moment of silence right after it’s over, like no one wants to ruin the moment.

“Hey, Wakatoshi-kun, are you a library book?”

Fucking hell.

“What?” Ushijima blinks. 

“Because I’m checking you out!” Tendou elbows him in the side with a grin.

Eita just groans.

* * *

 

“Aren’t we supposed to decide what movements we’re playing today?” Kinoshita asks.

“Yeah.” Narita shrugs. “But we practiced everything, right? Why do we have to decide now?”

“I don’t know.” Ennoshita flips through the music. “There are people playing individual movements longer than our entire piece. Why do we have to shorten it?”

“Maybe five movements is just too much?” Hitoka asks. She doesn’t know if everyone else thinks the same, but her part is hard and she doesn’t want to get the whole piece performance ready, even if it’s only fourteen minutes long. 

“Hitoka-chan’s right.” Kiyoko nods. “It’s better to have one or two great movements than five mediocre ones.”

“Yeah...” Ennoshita trails off. “If we’re choosing movements, I hate the second movement.”

“Is that the waltz?” Narita asks. 

Ennoshita nods. “Yep.”

“Yeah, we’re cutting that.” 

“Good.” 

Hitoka doesn’t even have an actual part in that movement. She plays for maybe ten measures, tops. 

“We should keep the fourth movement,” Kiyoko says. “It’s short and everyone gets a solo.”

Alarm bells go off in Hitoka’s head at the mention of the last word. Her part in the fourth movement is fairly long for how short the movement is, and she’s afraid that she’ll actually die if she performs it. But she doesn’t say anything; she’ll get over it if everyone else thinks it’s a good idea.

“Honestly, I just want to do the last two movements and be done with it.” Kinoshita lets out a breath. “The third one’s repetitive as hell and I'd rather start with the fourth one than the first one.”

“I don't have any problems with that.” Ennoshita looks around at everyone else. “Unless there are any objections, I guess we're just going with that.”

No one says anything. The fifth movement is the most interesting out of all of them, and it’s not as weird as the other movements. If there's any movement they want to spend their time on, it’s that one.

And the fourth movement is pretty easy, too. In between the solos, it’s pretty much exactly the same the whole way through. The solos come with their own problems, but it’s nice to know that there's not a lot to worry about besides them.

“Okay, that's it.” Kiyoko looks at Kinoshita with a smile. “Are you going to burn your music now?”

“What? No!” Kinoshita’s eyes go wide. “I'm not  _ that  _ irresponsible.”

“I know.” Kiyoko giggles. “I wouldn't think any less of you if you did end up burning your music.”

“That was uncharacteristically salty of you, Shimizu-san.” Ennoshita turns around in his chair, still holding his oboe. “Which piece hurt you?”

“None in particular.” Kiyoko shrugs. “I've just definitely felt like burning my music at points.”

“I play  _ oboe _ .” Ennoshita grins. “I've had some rough stuff.”

“I squeaked on the clarinet solo in Capriccio Español during a concert.” Kinoshita grumbles.

“I played the horn solo in that one promenade in Pictures at an Exhibition,” Narita adds. “That didn't end well.”

Hitoka just now realizes all the gifts she's been given just by choosing the flute over most other instruments.

“If we’re on the topic of salt,” Ennoshita says, “Can I be really petty for a second?”

“How much more petty can we  _ get _ , Chikara?” Kinoshita asks.

“True, true. Well.” Ennoshita brings his voice down a few decibel levels. “You guys know Moniwa-san, right? Nice guy, plays flute, you know. He snores  _ so loud _ .”

Narita barely holds back a giggle. “He  _ does _ !”

“I have the bunk right under him and I didn't get to sleep until one in the morning last night.” Ennoshita lets out a long breath. “Someone in my other group has an extra pair of earplugs, so I should be fine, but that's sleep I'll never get back.”

“Oh, what a shame,” Kinoshita deadpans. “It’s not like we were all in the room with you.”

Ennoshita sticks out his tongue at him. “So, anyone else have any drama? Have people started making out in practice rooms yet?”

“It’s day two!” Narita holds up two fingers for dramatic effect. “That never happens until at least day six.”

“Who knows?” Ennoshita shrugs. “Anything could happen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I know it wasn't my usual two week update, but I've spent a lot of time planning this fic out lately and it's going to be really long but I finally know what I'm doing! I've planned out what chapters all the kisses are in and everything (hehe there will be more than one) 
> 
> Also, I'm going to try to speed up my updates whenever I can and update on Saturdays! I'll be updating once a week when I can, but if I have writer's block or finals or whatever else, I'll update every other week. This AU definitely won't be finished until 2018 (especially combined with mitaosi 3, which i'm already halfway done with!!!) but I'm more on top of it now than I was.
> 
> tumblr: [violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com) / [hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com) (Come talk to me on either, I'll love you forever!)


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bokuto has a fun time. Kunimi does not. They're both in hell either way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pieces Used in This Chapter: [Strauss II - Unter Donner Und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning Polka)](https://youtu.be/Rk7p8P_1dj4)

“Hey, Sawamura!” Koutarou shouts, barely able to hear his voice over the music.

“What?”

“Did you know that Richard Strauss and the waltz Strausses aren't actually related?” Koutarou asks.

“Bokuto, we’re literally in the middle of playing something.” Sawamura looks at the stand in front of him and visibly messes up a shift. Oops.

“Yeah, but!” Koutarou grins, momentarily looking at the music in front of him. Everything is the same as it was a second ago. That's comforting.

He’s not bored, the piece is interesting enough and it gets hard later - if you define hard as having to shift up into high positions for an extended period of time, which is one of the things that he does in fact consider hard - but he's played it before. Even with a new group of people, the piece is exactly the same and the part is just as difficult as always.

He looks over at everyone else in the front row. Oikawa looks like he's having a good time while Ushijima, as always, shows no emotion. Someone who is clearly  _ not _ showing no emotion is Tsukishima, who's scowling at the music on his stand while he contemplates how he could have improved his audition to get out of second-violin offbeat hell. Konoha’s posture is horrible - his scroll is practically resting on his thigh - but he's probably still getting all the notes. Shirabu’s also scowling, no doubt thinking of all the ways his life would be different if he'd just stuck to the violin and avoided  _ viola  _ offbeat hell. Koutarou has heard complaints of both, and he isn't sure which is worse.

And all the while, Suga is just sitting there trying to stay alive. Poor Suga.

Koutarou can't help but notice how the rest of the cellos are dragging behind. They're practically playing on the offbeats at this point, and he's sitting closer to the violas than any of them. They're so weird.

Thankfully, Ukai starts tapping his baton on his stand right at that moment, bringing them all back to the downbeats they're supposed to be playing. Funny how things work out that I right when you need them to.

Three chords signify the beginning of the trio section, something different from the rest of the piece so far. And right after that, it begins: The high section.

Honestly, it isn't even that bad. It's just that sightreading it is a pain, when everyone’s intonation doesn't sound quite right and someone in the back squeaks. There definitely needs to be a sectional on that later.

The percussion makes Koutarou jump. Not in a bad way, though, because it just makes things more fun. After all, what would the Thunder and Lightning polka be without any thunder or lightning? Everyone seems much more lively after that, even the violas. It's a miracle.

The rest of the piece flies by after that. There are repeats everywhere, and it's just the same melody every time. And when they go back to the beginning, it’s exactly the same as before. Koutarou misses when he had the melody. 

At the coda, he realizes that they've slowed down exponentially from where they started. He doesn't know how it happened, but he remembers it clearly happening last time too. Weird.

“What was that tempo at the end, 120?” Ukai sighs as soon as the last note dies off. “Do you want to play Radetsky March instead? This is a polka, in case you haven't noticed.”

Koutarou gasps. Not  _ Radetsky March _ .

A nervous buzz resounds through the orchestra. Everyone’s apparently as scared as he is. Radetsky March is a legitimate threat. It's a fate worse than death

“The tempo we started at was, what, 144?” Ukai looks down at his phone, which probably has a metronome open. Probably. “I want to perform this a lot faster.”

The room buzzes again.

“Like at quarter equals 176.”

Everyone goes silent. Even Koutarou thinks that’s pushing it a little. The other pieces they’re playing are already hard enough. Okay, maybe Danse Macabre only has one actually hard part, but this is ridiculous.

“Wait.” Oikawa’s voice cuts through the silence. “ _ What _ ?”

That’s what everyone else is thinking. 

“Don’t make any judgments before trying it out.” Ukai holds up his baton again and it suddenly hits Koutarou that they’re  _ actually doing it _ . How is this even possible?

Koutarou barely comes in on time, but at least he's better than almost everyone else, who doesn't come in at all and now has to scramble to catch up. The offbeats are all over the place, and they're more of a wave of sound that never ends than a response to the basses, who are surprisingly in time. It helps that they're the only ones who can easily be heard.

Sawamura grits his teeth as he attempts the sixteenth run. It doesn't go well. And he reaches the high E almost at the end of the measure. Eventually he just gives up, pausing for a measure to breathe.

“What is this, Tchaik 4?” He asks himself.

Koutarou can barely hold in his laughter.

* * *

Kunimi Akira is in hell. Everything around him is on fire, the world is ending, and he thinks he sees Satan himself somewhere in the violins.

Wait, that’s just Oikawa. Easy mistake.

The offbeats are definitely driving him out of his mind. He’s played nothing else for the whole piece, and he’s never played anything this boring. Why did he switch to viola anyway? If he’d stuck with violin, he wouldn’t have to deal with all this.

Hold on. If he still played violin, he’d be a second violin. Which meant that he’d have to do the exact same thing. 

There is truly no such thing as victory in Polka Land.

Akira keeps his eyes trained on the stand in front of him, even though he knows the notes by heart. So what if it’s his first time playing this ever, it’s easy enough to the point where he can just tell based on the chord progression. And even if he does mess up, it’s not hard to find another note in the chord. The second violins are probably playing it.

He’s sitting next to Kozume - it feels weird calling him Kenma, no matter how many times he’s told him to - and he looks to be in just as much pain as Akira is. His posture is drooping just like Akira’s is, and no one can blame him for it. The skill level won’t be decreased by resting your scroll on your knee, it just makes an already easy part easier.

Everyone seemed to freak out when Ukai said he would speed up the tempo, but Akira barely notices. Sure, he notices how the piece is sloppier than ever, but nothing about his part changes. It’s just offbeats. Always fucking offbeats. It doesn’t matter if they get faster, they’re still the same. 

At least the violas can actually be heard over the unity every other section doesn’t have. Well, the violas don’t have it, either. They have the easiest part in the orchestra and yet they’re not playing it in time.

To be fair, it is kind of hard to play it in time when no one else is. Especially the percussion. They’re playing at complete random and Akira has no idea when something in the back is going to smash his eardrums. This piece had oil poured all over it when Ukai announced the tempo change and the match was lit when he raised his baton. Again, everything is on fire. 

The ending is finally not offbeats. Sixteen beautiful measures of not offbeats. And there are sixteenth-notes! Honest to god sixteenth-notes! It’s a miracle.

Of course, Akira rushes them - the piece is already insanely fast, how does he even rush that? If anything he should be dragging - and reaches the end before everyone else, but there are people who are so far behind that they reach the end after him.

But eventually everyone reaches the last note - Ukai purposefully holds it long enough so everyone who’s behind catches up - and then the piece ends. 

What the fuck was that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk to me on tumblr ([@violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)/[@hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com)) people were sending in hcs yesterday and I felt alive
> 
> Sorry for not updating (and for the short chapter) but my excuse is relevant I swear 
> 
> I was actually performing this exact piece at the dank ass winter waltz 2017 (any ghs kids reading who i don't already know?? that would be cool but i feel like i know all of you already) and there was dancing and fancy sprite and it was pretty great so if you want to know more details on how that went let me know because I have stories (and i'm going to make it into a tsukyam hc's post lmao)
> 
> Also thanks to Sarah for letting me look at the cello part I'm eternally grateful


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iwaizumi doesn't deserve any of this.

Hajime sits down at a table in the corner that's conveniently empty, waiting for Oikawa to join him. He's tired, and he wants nothing more than to enjoy spaghetti night in peace.

Needless to say, that doesn't happen.

Matsukawa comes to the table first, wearing a black t-shirt that's designed to look like a tux from the front.

“Please tell me you're not wearing that to the concert,” Hajime mutters.

“I'm not, don't worry.” Matsukawa grins, taking a piece of fabric and spreading it out on top of the table like a tablecloth. Naturally, he doesn't sit down.

“What are you doing?” Hajime asks.

“Nothing,” Matsukawa replies. That's suspicious.

“Iwa-chaaaaan!” Oikawa runs in right at that moment and site down right across from Hajime before looking up at Matsukawa. “Mattsun, are you going to sit down?”

“Nah, I'm sitting over there.” Matsukawa points at the next table over, where Hanamaki and Tendou flash peace signs as if on queue. Ushijima doesn't seem to notice.

“Then what are you doing here?” Oikawa asks.

“Do I have to have a reason to talk to my friend?”

Oikawa smiles. “Of course not!”

Hajime can't tell if that's serious or not,

Matsukawa reaches into the back pocket of his jeans and takes out two battery-powered electric candles, setting them down on the table. Hajime has no idea what he's trying to do. The whole environment is weird. The candles brighten things up a little bit, but the light looks so dull and artificial. Well, whatever Matsukawa’s intentions are, bringing actual candles probably isn't a good idea.

As soon as he's done setting candles down, he walks away. And not toward his own table, either. He walks toward the buffet table.

What is he doing?

Hajime hears someone giggling at the next table. It's Tendou, because who else could it be? 

Wait, where did Hanamaki go?

Hajime has a really bad feeling about this.

Before he can register anything, music starts playing. It seems to be coming from one of those portable speakers, and when Hajime looks at the table next to him, he sees one sitting right in front of Tendou. He doesn’t recognize the song at first, but it’s slow and acoustic. Like a song they’d play over an annoyingly bad attempt at a slow dance at a middle school dance.

When he realizes it’s “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias, he’s almost tempted to congratulate himself for being right. 

“Can I get some drinks for you two?”

Hajime looks up to see Hanamaki standing in front of him with a stupid grin on his face, wearing a shirt exactly like Matsukawa’s. They clearly planned this in advance. He’s carrying a notepad and a bright green mechanical pencil. 

“Aww, Makki!” Oikawa gushes. “This is so cute!”

Hanamaki takes a tiny bow. “It was Issei’s idea, but thank you.”

“There’s milk over there, right?”

“Milk is a relatively normal drink, there should be.”

“Do you have any alcohol?” Hajime groans.

“No!” Hanamaki gasps. “That’s illegal!”

“Damn.” Hajime frowns. “I’ll take the biggest glass of water you have.”

Hanamaki chuckles, jotting something down on the notepad. “Coming right up!”

He walks away and Hajime stops paying attention to what he's doing now and pays more attention to what he just did. Hanamaki’s trying to be nice, he's generally a nice person, but there has to be some ulterior motive underneath that. That, combined with the candles, the tablecloth, the music -

Fuck Hanamaki Takahiro. And Matsukawa Issei, too. Fuck two birds with one stone.

“Oikawa.”

“What?” Oikawa looks up at Hajime with a frown.

“Don't you think there's something weird about this?”

“Yeah, but it's good weird.” Oikawa hums to himself. “Mattsun and Makki are so nice!”

“Yeah, sure.” Hajime huffs. “Listen to the music.”

Oikawa closes his eyes, tilting his head from side to side in time with the song. “What about it?”

“It’s cheesy.”

“Yes, and?” Oikawa asks. “I like cheesy.”

“Think about it.” Hajime brings his voice down. “The music, the decorations, the way they're acting like fancy waiters, it all sounds like a date scene from a shitty romcom.”

“Oh?” Oikawa raises one eyebrow. “ _ That's  _ what you're getting from this? I never would have noticed.”

“Hey!” Hajime can feel himself turning red. 

“Kidding!” Oikawa laughs. “I'm just kidding, Iwa-chan.”

“Sure you are.” How could Matsukawa and Hanamaki pull something this dumb and this embarrassing at the same time? They’re probably at the buffet table, laughing their assessment off.

“Your drinks, gentle sirs.” Hanamaki slides back over to the table with a grin, setting the two glasses down on the table. “Your entrees will be out in just a moment.”

“You could have just said spaghetti,” Hajime says, rolling his eyes as he picks up the glass of water in front of him.

“You're ruining the mood, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa interjects. 

“Whatever!”

“I guess I'll just leave you two to it, then.” Hanamaki takes a seat across from Tendou at the other table, and Hajime definitely notices how he turns the music up, despite how subtle he's clearly trying to be.

Hajime just groans again.

“Don't be such a stick in the mud!” Oikawa hisses. “This is supposed to be  _ fun _ !”

“We have vastly different definitions of fun, you know this.”

“Yeah, but.” Oikawa huffs, crossing his arms. “Just go with it for once.”

Hajime isn't sure how he can do that while Tendou’s singing along to whatever stupid slow dance song is playing right now. 

“Incoming!”

He's interrupted by a plate of spaghetti slamming down on the table in front of him, and he's surprised his glass of water doesn't tip over in the process. ” Two forks are dropped right in the middle of the table, and surprisingly, the plates of salad are set down slowly and quietly. 

Matsukawa’s grinning when Hajime looks up at him and he responds to his glare with nothing but a shrug. He sits down next to Hanamaki at the other table without saying a word.

What on earth did Hajime do to deserve this?

“Iwa-chan!”

“What?”

“Your face is making me sad.”

“Doesn’t it always?”

Oikawa laughs out loud, covering his mouth with his napkin just like the dainty Austen-novel Englishwoman he is. “Of course not, Iwa-chan.”

Hajime takes a too-big bite of his spaghetti as the next song starts. It’s just the same as all the other ones. He doesn’t know the name, but he knows for a fact it’s been in a movie somewhere. During the cheesy dance scene, too. 

“This one’s nice,” Oikawa muses.

Hajime shrugs. He knows it’s only going to get worse from here.

“Not that one!” Tendou hisses from the next table. He obviously doesn’t want either Hajime or Oikawa to hear him, but he’s Tendou. He’s never been subtle.

Alarm bells start going off in Hajime’s head. 

“What’s wrong with this one?” Matsukawa asks. “It’s good.”

“There’s nothing wrong with it!” Tendou chuckles. “I just happen to know what the next song in the playlist is and it’s a lot better than this.”

This can’t be good. Tendou’s definition of good is vastly different from Hajime’s different from good, and if Tendou thinks something is good in  _ this  _ situation, Hajime’s probably going to rip his hair out by the time he knows what it is.

“Really...” Hanamaki trails off. 

“Yes!” Tendou says. “Just play the song, you won’t regret it!”

Hajime definitely will. 

“Well, if you insist...” There’s a brief pause as he changes the song and - 

The opening notes of “Never Gonna Give You Up” are almost drowned off by the Three-Headed Monster’s laughing fit, but Hajime can still hear it and he recognizes it instantly. He hates how catchy it is, and he especially hates how he can’t stop bobbing his head to it. Someone at one of the other tables starts singing along. So does Oikawa. Hanamaki and Tendou are both off-key, and if Hajime could hear Matsukawa, he’s probably just as tone deaf as the other two are. It’s hell. 

Once again, Hajime finds himself wondering what he could have done to prevent this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoa i actually updated in a week what is this???
> 
> also yes. this fic's going to have 65 chapters. buckle up kids.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata's indecisive and Kageyama needs rosin.

Shouyou wakes up on Thursday before everyone else in his room, just like he’s done for the past two days. He grabs his violin case and sneaks out, making sure to close the door quietly behind him; he woke Inuoka up by accidentally slamming it yesterday. Inuoka was fine with it, of course, but Shouyou doesn’t want it to happen again.

The leaves crunch under his feet as he walks down the path to Building A, where he’s gone every day. He doesn’t know why he likes the rooms there better than the ones in the other buildings, but he does. And apparently, so does everyone else, which is why he can only get them here and now, early in the morning before anyone else is awake to take them.

Shouyou isn’t surprised to see Kageyama standing outside the door to the lobby of Building A when he gets there. The two of them have the same idea, and they’ve met every day Shouyou’s been coming here, which is every day. They’ve exchanged some conversations, sure, but it’s never been anything big.

At least they don’t outright hate each other like they did a few days ago.

“Kageyama!” Shouyou shouts, his case bouncing on his back as he runs over to the door. 

Kageyama looks up and narrows his eyes before walking into the lobby. 

Is he ignoring him? Rude.

“Ka-ge-ya-ma!” Shouyou repeats, trying at least to catch his attention.

“What do you want?” Kageyama asks, finally turning around to face him. That isn't much, but it’s a victory in Shouyou’s book. 

“I just wanted to say good morning, jeez!” Shouyou pouts. “What are you practicing today?”

“Strauss.”

Shouyou chortles. “ _ Strauss _ ? But that's easy, there's -”

“Listen, dumbass, when you play second violin you shouldn't be allowed to talk.” Kageyama glares at him for a second before walking through the lobby to the stairs to the second floor. “Why are you in here anyway?”

“It's the only time I can get the room.” Shouyou shrugs, following Kageyama up the stairs. “Aren't you going to ask me what I'm playing?”

“No.”

“You know...” Shouyou’s definitely messing with Kageyama at this point, but it's kind of fun. “Tsukishima and Yamaguchi are both in my cabin, I could see if they want to rehearse the Smetana up here sometime -”

“Hinata, I would rather die.”

“Fine, be like that.” Shouyou huffs. He rushes up the stairs to overtake Kageyama just in time to grab room 13, the room Kageyama’s been in for the past two days. He slams the door shut behind him just before Kageyama gets there, giggling as Kageyama sighs melodramatically from the other side, muted by the door. Serves him right.

He slips through the sea of chairs near the far wall and grabs a stand, pulling it out into the center. The room is big, and he feels a little lonely. This is the room he was in with the octet yesterday, of course it’s huge. He feels like the sound is going to echo too much, but whatever. He isn't that picky.

He opens his case and takes out all the essentials: his bow, his violin, his shoulder rest, rosin, his -

Oh.

“Kageyama!” He yells, opening the door and poking his head out into the hall.

“I'm right here, what do you want?” 

Kageyama is standing right outside the door to the practice room right across the hall with his hand on the doorknob, his cello case still on his back. Why is he still out here?

“Do you have a tuner?” Shouyou asks. He feels so dumb asking, but it's not like he can practice when he's not in tune.

“Yes, you can't use it.”

“Pleeease?” 

“ _ No _ .” Kageyama turns around with a scowl. “Did you even look in your room for ten seconds?”

Shouyou blinks. Was there something he was supposed to notice? “...What?”

“There's a piano in there, did you really not see that?”

Shouyou ducks back into the room, spotting something covered up by a purple velvet cloth. Is that an upright in disguise? He never would have noticed otherwise. “Thanks, Kageyama!”

Kageyama instantly turns around again, practically kicking the practice room door open. He doesn’t say a word. He walks in and slams the door shut behind him, and for a second everything is silent.

Shouyou ducks back into his room and shuts the door before rushing into the center of the room to pick up his violin. He needs to work out everything in...  _ everything _ , he supposes. Except the Saint-Saëns and the Strauss. Thankfully, those are both pretty easy - incredibly easy in the Strauss’s case.

He thinks about it as he rosins his bow. He doesn’t know whether to go to to the Smetana, the Mendelssohn, or the Rachmaninoff first. They’re all hard and all for different reasons.

There’s dynamics he has to work on in the Smetana, especially during Yamaguchi’s solos, and he definitely needs to use his bow another way if he doesn’t want it to sound scratchy. And speaking of bowings, he has no idea what Tsukishima’s even doing for most of it and every rehearsal has resulted in them being practically opposite - Shouyou’s seen Tsukishima glaring at him when the triplets aren’t matching up, and he wants to be on the receiving end of as few of those glares as possible. 

The Mendelssohn isn’t technically hard, but it’s fast. So fast that Shouyou’s missed half his entrances because he counted two measures as four because he forgot the movement was in two. Plus, he’s always behind on his eighth notes because he can’t seem to play them fast enough and because of that, there’s no hope of him playing off the string like everyone else. 

And then there’s the Rachmaninoff, considerably slower than both the other pieces but just as complicated. Approximately a third of the piece is agonizingly slow legato triplets, and beside getting lost, he always either messes up the notes or gets off on the bowing. Or both. And it’s a slow movement, which means it has to be beautiful and long with lots of vibrato, things he’s never really been good at. 

He thinks for a split second that it’s a good idea to just take all of his music out of his binder and throw it all on the floor face-down before just picking up a random page and working on that piece. His music is all numbered, it wouldn’t be that hard to put it back together. 

Screw it.

He opens the binder and carefully removes the Rachmaninoff, the Smetana, and the Mendelssohn before tossing them all up in the air. The six pieces of paper carefully float down to the ground and land all spread out right in front of his feet.

And that’s when he realizes that half the music in front of him is double-sided.

Just when he notices it and is starting to sulk about it, someone knocks on the door. How do things just happen that way? 

“Come in!” Shouyou tries not to sound annoyed, even though he is.

The door slowly opens and Kageyama pokes his head into the room, scowling once he sees the mess of paper on the ground. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I couldn’t decide what to practice, so I just...” This is such a dumb idea now that Shouyou has to explain it. “...Wanted to randomly pick something?”  
Kageyama looks like he’s in disbelief for a second before he regains his composure. “Do you have any rosin?”

“ _ You _ don’t have rosin?”

“I do, I just let Semi-san borrow it yesterday and he said he’d give it back at breakfast, and it obviously isn’t breakfast yet.” Kageyama frowns, like he’s ashamed of this happening in the first place. Considering his personality, Shouyou doesn’t exactly blame him. “Do you have any or not?”

“I have some.” Shouyou kneels down on the floor to open his case, grabbing the rosin he just used on his own bow a few minutes ago. He stands up again and holds it out to Kageyama. “It’s not great -”

“It’s enough.” Kageyama snatches the rosin out of his hand, looking down to inspect it before retreating out of the room again. 

“Wait, Kageyama!”

“What.” Kageyama pokes his head right back in again.

“What should I practice?” That is such a dumb question. And out of everyone he could possibly ask, why Kageyama?

“I thought you had it figured out.”

“My music’s double-sided, it isn’t actually random that way!”

Kageyama rolls his eyes. “You stand out the most in the Smetana, work on that.”

Shouyou’s never thought of it that way. “Thanks!”

Kageyama nods before he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. Surprisingly, he doesn’t slam it like he’s done every other time.

He’d better give Shouyou his rosin back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't update last week lmao I'm surprised that I actually got this out when I did lmao
> 
> Also you know in chapter 5 or something when I referenced Ushijima playing the Mendelssohn violin concerto well yeah one of our seniors is playing that with us now i love when this fic predicts my life


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa's early for once and Kageyama sees a glimpse of what he wants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pieces Used This Chapter:  
> [Schubert - String Quintet in C Major - I. Allegro ma non troppo](https://youtu.be/B0sA5tPyK-I?list=PL7S5ykLyw13uU7mxyBr_IefXnEGWJJbBD)  
> [Smetana - String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor - I. Allegro vivo appassionato](https://youtu.be/k02ZNvKigh8?list=PL7S5ykLyw13uU7mxyBr_IefXnEGWJJbBD)

Tooru walks up to Building B feeling refreshed, ready for whatever the day has to throw at him. The pancakes this morning were delicious, and he actually got enough sleep last night instead of dicking around with the idiots in his room. He feels like he can actually rehearse now instead of just faking it with enough skill so no one notices.

“You’re oddly happy today,” Kuroo muses as Tooru walks into Room 3, where the Schubert’s assigned to practice for the morning. 

“Really?” Tooru asks, pulling a chair out into the center of the room. He and Kuroo are the only people here, and he doesn’t know why everyone else isn’t. Up until now, he’s assumed that Bokuto and Kuroo were attached at the hip, and Ushijima and Sawamura are both pretty punctual guys. “Where’s everyone else?”

Kuroo shrugs. “Dunno. They’ll be here in a few minutes, I’m sure.” 

“Mm.” Tooru puts his case on his lap and zips it open. “Hey, Tetsu-chan, what are you working on right now?”

“Me?” Kuroo grins. “Mendelssohn. Just like Ushiwaka.”

“Same movement?” 

“As far as I know, we’re both doing the first movement, but I don’t know what else he’s doing.” Kuroo pulls three more chairs up before going to grab stands. “What about you?”

“Shostakovich 2,” Tooru replies. He leaves out the fact that he’s only doing the first movement for now. It sounds more impressive that way.

“Ah.” Kuroo pulls three stands into the middle of the room and matches each one up to a chair. “Are you sad that you don’t get to wow everyone with the Danse Macabre solo today?”

“What?” Tooru raises one eyebrow. “Do you really think that’s the only way I can wow everyone?”

Kuroo laughs. “Of course not!”

Tooru’s playing first violin on both of his camp pieces, if anyone’s wowing everyone at the performance, it’s going to be him. And he’s fully prepared to take that challenge. 

“Hey, sorry I’m late!” Bokuto slams the door shut behind him, rolling his cello case into the middle of the room. “I had to talk to someone about something.”

“That’s vague,” Tooru says. 

“Yeah...” Bokuto and Kuroo share a look. What’s up with them?

“Did Tsukki beat you to it?” Kuroo asks with a grin.

“Yep.” Bokuto sits down with a huff. “And I came up with the perfect thing to say, too!”

“What are you two talking about?” Tooru asks.

“Nothing!” Bokuto grins. He’s clearly hiding something.

But whatever. 

“Does anyone know where Sawamura and Ushiwaka are?” Tooru glares at the door. They’re already late for rehearsal, they’re only rubbing salt into the wound at this point.

“No clue.” Bokuto shrugs. “I haven’t seen them at all today.”

“Weird.” Tooru picks up his violin and rosins his bow.

“How late am I?” The door opens as Sawamura walks in, clearly out of breath.  

Kuroo pulls his phone out of the pocket of his pants. “Four minutes and twenty-nine seconds.” 

“Crap, sorry.”

“What were you doing?”

“I woke up late.”

“And why’s that?”

“I don’t know, I stayed up late.” Sawamura puts his cello case down next to Bokuto’s and sits down. 

“Ah.” Kuroo nods understandingly. “So now we’re just waiting on Ushiwaka.”

“He plays second violin, can’t we just rehearse without him?” Tooru asks. All he wants is to start playing, and he’s getting impatient.

“Oikawa!” Kuroo sighs. “We were all second violins once, remember that.”

The time Tooru spent being a second violin was a dark one that he doesn’t want to think about if he can help it. However brief it was, it was bad.

“You’re looking for Ushijima?” Sawamura asks.

“Yeah, have any idea where he is?” Bokuto asks back.

“Nope.” Sawamura shakes his head. “It’s weird, though, he’s never late.”

“I know.” Bokuto frowns.

Just as everyone falls silent, the door quietly creaks open and Ushijima walks in, like he can’t tell everyone’s staring at him. He walks to his seat and sits down, putting his case on his lap.

“Where were you?” Kuroo asks.

“I was talking to Tendou,” Ushijima replies.

That explains it. 

“Everything makes a lot more sense now.” Bokuto lets out a breath, putting his music up on the stand in front of him. 

“Now that everyone’s here, we need to make up for lost time.” Tooru knows exactly what needs to be done to get this to sound good, at least based on what happened on Tuesday. “I think we should work on the triplets at N and -”

“Oikawa, hold on, we need to tune first.” Kuroo chuckles.

“Right, right!” Tooru quickly unzips the outside pocket of his case and grabs his tuner, checking to make sure his A is good enough. He has to adjust a little bit, but it doesn’t take that long. He puts his tuner down before playing the A again, letting everyone tune to it. Bokuto tuning his C string takes longer than everything else combined, but even then, tuning is done quickly.

“You were saying?” Bokuto asks, looking at Tooru.

“I’ve noticed that whenever we have triplet lines, they usually get off.” Tooru looks over at Kuroo. “We have a line together at N and it’s a mess from there until O.”

“All right, N it is.” Kuroo shrugs, bringing his viola up to his shoulder. “Wait.”

“Hm?”

“Everyone who doesn’t have triplets should play there before we join in,” Kuroo says. “Just to make sure we know what we’re on top of.”

“So does that mean we’re emphasizing the triplets?” Sawamura asks.

“What else would we emphasize?” Tooru asks back. The triplets are the most noticeable line at that point in the piece, why not emphasize them?

“Ushijima and I have... something there.” Sawamura looks at the music on his stand. “I don’t know if it’s much, but it’s there.”

Tooru’s never noticed it. Maybe because he’s been focused on the triplets. “Whatever, you three just play your parts there.”

“Got it!” Bokuto counts off a measure, and he, Sawamura, and Ushijima start playing. Well, it’s just Sawamura at first. Bokuto doesn’t come in until halfway through the measure, and Ushijima doesn’t start playing until the second measure. It sounds kind of boring, but it’s the foundation the triplets need to sound cool.

They all stop playing at O, just after Sawamura plays the descending scale. Tooru has the same thing there.

“What are you gonna say to  _ that _ , triplet people?” Bokuto grins.

“Those were some impressive quarter notes.” Kuroo grins back. 

“Hey!”

“Whatever.” Tooru sighs. “Play that again, Tetsu-chan and I are back in.”

Pages are flipped as everyone gets ready to play the section again. Tooru gives a quick cue and they’re off. It sounds better than it has already, even if that’s just due to Kuroo accenting the first note of every triplet. It sounds chunky, like an all-strings marching band. At least he’s in time that way, and he’ll kick that habit before the performance anyway. 

At least, Tooru hopes he does.

* * *

It’s obvious from the very first chord that something’s different.

For one, it’s actually in tune. For Tobio, it isn’t that hard since he only has to play one note, but the other all have three-note chords and none of the notes are wrong. Hinata’s G isn’t sharp, Yamaguchi’s E and B are almost perfect, and Tsukishima’s high E isn’t screechy like it’s been most other times he’s played it.

And for another, it sounds fuller, bigger. The chords roll from bottom to top, quick and sharp, but every note rights, from Tobio’s low E to Tsukishima’s high E four octaves above it. The chords are more balanced than they’ve been before, too. The balance isn’t perfect, of course, but Yamaguchi’s a lot less invisible now than Tobio expects him to be. Not that there’s anything wrong with Yamaguchi, he’s a lot easier to deal with than Tsukishima, but he’s as typical a violist as they come.

After the chord, the difference in dynamics is like night and day. Tobio barely has to move his bow at all, just enough to make a sound that hovers just underneath everything else. He hates that he has to hold the same note for more measures than he’d be able to count if they weren’t printed on the page, but his audition was bad this year. He kind of deserves it.

Yamaguchi’s solo isn’t that much louder than it’s been before, but it sounds like it. Tsukishima probably snapped at Hinata enough to push him out of the way. Yamaguchi’s phrasing is a lot clearer now, even though the tempo is faster than it’s been before. Tobio wants to slow it down a little bit, but there’s time to work that out.

The second chord is just as strong as the first, and it backs off just as quickly. Yamaguchi comes back in again, and he’s a little quieter this time, but Tobio thinks that’s intentional, since this time it’s a half step lower. 

The third chord is where everything starts to get interesting. Hinata’s way too loud after the first note of his triplet set, but Tsukishima’s more than quiet enough for both of them. The weirdest thing is that they’re together; Hinata’s always rushed the triplets, but for some reason he isn’t now. 

The only reason Tobio’s noticing all of this is because his part is obnoxiously boring.

He and Yamaguchi start switching off triplets while Hinata and Tsukishima roll big chords that stand out over the smoothness of the triplets in the lower register. Tsukishima does that annoying exaggerated cue thing he does as he slows down before he takes over the melody for himself.

Well, with Hinata. But Hinata’s an octave lower, and for some reason he’s playing quieter than he should. Weird.

Tobio’s still playing the same eighth-notes. Over and over again.

The color of the piece changes as it goes into C major for a few measures. The notes get longer in value and smoother on everyone’s instruments. There are a few five-seven chords here and there, but it stays grounded in C before moving to E major and then G major, which makes a lot more sense.

Tobio and Yamaguchi have the same background part - that’s a common theme in this piece, what does Smetana have against low voices? - while Tsukishima and Hinata both have a line in contrast to each other. Hinata’s playing way too loud and he doesn’t have nearly enough contrast, but Tsukishima’s dynamic level changes  _ a lot _ . He has quite a bit of vibrato, too, and he’s actually phrasing. Since when did he do that?

Yamaguchi has a brief solo, and he slows down the tempo more than he’s ever done before. No one’s messed with tempo this entire time, but somehow it’s happening and somehow everyone’s communicating enough to make it happen.

After Tsukishima carries the melody for a few more measures, Hinata comes in with his first true melody line, and while the eighth notes aren’t entirely steady, they’re in tune, and he starts and ends at the right place. Tsukishima does the same thing - of course, he’s technically a lot better but he’s more subdued compared to Hinata, of course - then Yamaguchi, and of course Tobio doesn’t get anything close to a melody line because Bedrich Smetana hates him.

The dynamics go from pianissimo to forte in one beat, maybe less than that. But while it’s loud, it doesn’t sound messy and it sounds nice. It’s not an attack on everyone’s ears like most forte sections are.

As they reach the end of the exposition, the sound starts to die off, and it sounds natural. It’s not the terraced dynamics that sometimes happen where it’s forte one measure and suddenly mezzo-forte the next. It just... fades.

Hinata’s the first one to stop, then Yamaguchi. It’s at the spot where Tsukishima’s already resting, so Tobio just finishes the measure and stops.

No one says a word for a while. They just stare at each other, eyes wide. 

“What was  _ that _ ?” Hinata asks, a bewildered smile on his face.

“It sounded good.” Yamaguchi puts his bow on his stand and smiles.

“Yeah, but why?” Tsukishima frowns. 

“Who cares why?” Hinata’s practically giggling at this point.

“You  _ do _ want it to sound like that again, right?” Tsukishima asks.

“Something... clicked, I think,” Yamaguchi says. His voice is quiet, but he’s clearly just as excited as Hinata is.

Tobio nods without thinking about it. That’s pretty much what it was, something about this runthrough was very different than every other runthrough they’ve ever had.

“So should we play it again?” Hinata asks.

Tsukishima shrugs. “This was probably a fluke anyway.”

Everyone picks up their bows again and waits for Tsukishima’s cue. He lifts up his scroll in the same annoying exaggerated way as always, and -

_ SCREECH! _

“Called it,” Tsukishima says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops @this chapter  
> okay but how did i get it up in time?? it's a miracle  
> i hope there's a chapter next week because chances are i won't be able to update two weeks from now (orchestra trip liiiiiiife lmao)   
> talk to me on tumblr! i love validation!


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kyoutani and Yahaba pick Watari up and Ushijima may have accidentally heard the performance that oh so subtly changed his life.

Kentarou hates this piece.

No offense to Camille Saint-Saëns - well, full offense, really - but there's barely anything he likes. The part seems fast, but it isn't, it's just the piano part in the background that has a ton of notes. The cello parts ridiculously boring, every note Kentarou plays like a slog through mud. Maybe that feeling just comes with the amount of pedal Watari’s using, Kentarou isn't sure.

He knows Yahaba feels exactly the same way, since their parts are almost the same. Sure, there's a difference of a few octaves, sometimes different harmonies here and there, and they're not playing exactly the same thing at the same time, but their parts have a lot in common. Neither of them really needed to practice this at all.

“Shit...” Watari whispers to himself as the piano part drops out. He comes back in the next measure, but his notes don't flow as well anymore, at least not at the start. 

But they keep going, and Watari eventually finds the music again. 

All three parts stay low, Kyoutani and Yahaba playing in unison over Watari’s sea of triplets. Even then, there's tension there, waiting to build and explode. The key changes, sort of but not really, again and again as the piece swirls from one measure to the next. It gets louder and louder until the main theme comes back and -

There's a sudden lump of dissonance, then the piano part drops out entirely. Yahaba stops playing shortly after that, which essentially forces Kentarou to do the same.

“Watari?” Yahaba asks. “Are you okay?”

“Physically, yeah,” Watari mumbles. His head is resting on the keys and Kentarou has no idea what he's doing. 

“Why did you stop?”

“I -” Watari picks his head up right before dropping it on the keys again - “can’t -” again - “play -” again - “this.”

“You’ve been playing it the whole time.”

“Have you heard me?” Watari groans. “I’m still faking half the piece and I’ve been working on it for four months!”

“So?” Yahaba shrugs, looking over at Watari’s music. “It looks hard.”

“It shouldn’t be.”

“Why are you moping so much now?” Yahaba asks. 

“Well, you both sound so  _ good _ , and I -”

Yahaba snorts. “You think I sound  _ good _ ?”

“Yeah, you can actually play it.”

“Dude, our parts are a joke.” Yahaba stands up, putting his violin down on the chair. “Your part’s hard as shit.”

“But you two both have a ton of high notes,” Watari says.

Yahaba chuckles. “You really don’t know how string instruments work, do you?”

He’s right. High notes aren’t a problem if they’re held forever. Hell, Kentarou’s high B is easy as hell after practicing it a few times. 

“Kyoutani, look at this.” Yahaba plucks Watari’s binder up off the piano and holds the music out so Kentarou can see. “Is this unfair or what?”

Kentarou squints to see it clearly; that’s how small and packed the notes are. Even then, he can barely see the string parts at all. The piano part is a mess of sixteenth note triplets while all Kentarou has are dotted quarter notes. He slowly nods in agreement. It really is unfair.

“See?” Yahaba turns to Watari again. “It’s hard and stupid, we don’t care how bad it sounds.”

“Are you sure?” Watari sits up again, eyes narrowed.

“Yes, we have two weeks left, it’ll be fine.” Yahaba grins, mostly genuine. To be fair, Kentarou’s never seen Yahaba smile completely genuinely in his life. Maybe that’s the most he can do. “We can slow down, right?” He looks at Kentarou here for agreement.

Kentarou nods. Slowing down won’t do much for him, but he supposes that isn’t the point.

* * *

Wakatoshi’s learned his lesson from how late he was to the Schubert rehearsal and gets to the Tchaikovsky rehearsal extra early. Early enough that he even misses a few minutes of lunch. 

It's 12:22 when he reaches the building he's in for today, case on his back and music in one hand. A cool breeze winds its way through his hair as he walks up to the door. He wants to be the first one here, just for the opportunity to practice on his own.

He's just outside the door when he realizes someone already beat him to it.

The window’s open, if only a crack, letting the sound of a violin out into the world. It’s all on the G string, whatever it is - Wakatoshi’s heard it before, but can’t place it - and the vibrato is just right, making it sound warm and rich. It’s slow with lots of rubato; the person playing it is clearly trying to get the most out of every note. There are eighth notes, but they’re slow, tension growing with every sequence before they ebb again. The flow begins once more as the eighth notes get higher, before erupting into sixteenth-notes that get higher and higher until they reach a vibrato-filled high F sharp. Each romantic line is interrupted by some fast and virtuosic passage of fast notes that disappear as soon as they come.

Wakatoshi puts his ear closer to the door, to see if he can listen better. He doesn’t know who this is. It could be someone practicing at lunch like him, or for all he knows, it could be Tendou. That makes the most sense.

The fast notes start again and they don’t stop this time, the tension growing as the violinist hops all over the instrument. The tempo fluctuates as notes are elongated and shortened, and it stays steady when it needs to. Somehow, the pacing works well.

The music stops for a second, and Wakatoshi considers opening the door as he hears a page turn. But with his hand on the doorknob, he freezes again, the music starting again.

Every note is a double stop before it becomes an arpeggio, the notes fast and the intensity higher. It almost sounds like an etude, but the violinist puts much more soul into it than they ever could with a simple exercise. The sixteenth-notes are slightly messy when there are more notes involved at the same time, but it sounds good, and the feeling is there. The contrast is like night and day, even in the same measure.

The volume drops as the violinist starts the double stops again. They start low, each note packing a punch but soon backing away. The sound starts to grow steadily as the notes get high enough to almost squeak - they don’t, but it’s ever so slightly out of tune.

There’s a slow section, full of slurred high notes and lots of vibrato, before the double stops start once again. They’re simpler now, slowing down just a hair as the distance between the notes gets bigger. 

The violinist rolls a chord and the tempo is fast again, sixteenth notes all over the place and the dynamic level growing but still delicate. They hit a high note and then back off, presumably the spot for the accompaniment to play.

The last notes start soft, growing as they get lower, before the violinist plays three octaves, a pickup, a high B, and two more chords.

Silence.

Still recovering from the intensity and expression of the performance he just heart, Wakatoshi turns the doorknob and opens the door, slowly as not to interrupt whoever’s inside.

Tendou’s bow is still in the air when Wakatoshi walks in, and his head whips around to face him instantly.

“It’s rude to enter without knocking, Wakatoshi-kun,” Tendou says, the same sing-songy way he says everything. 

Wakatoshi shrugs.

“Were you here to practice early?” Tendou chuckles. “Sorry if I took your spot.”

“There’s not a reservation system,” Wakatoshi replies, “No one can take anyone’s spot.”

“Yeah, I guess...” Tendou trails off before his face goes pale. “Did you hear that?”

Wakatoshi nods. “What was that?”

“Elgar violin concerto,” Tendou says. “I’ve been working on it for a month or so.”

“Hm.” Wakatoshi sits down in one of the chairs that Tendou presumably set up earlier, putting his case on his lap and his music on his stand.

“Hey, Wakatoshi-kun.”

“Hm?”

“Did that sound good?” Tendou pouts. “I mean, obviously it’s not going to sound  _ good _ because I haven’t been working on it for that long, but was it okay?”

Wakatoshi nods again. It did sound good for only a month on something that complex. “It was expressive.”

“Anything’s expressive compared to you!”

The door opens again and Semi walks in, dragging his case behind him. He frowns when he sees the two of them already sitting there. 

“Come on, I thought I’d be the first one here,” he says, plopping down in a chair. 

Tendou only laughs as the mood shifts from Elgar to Tchaikovsky in a heartbeat.

Wakatoshi doesn’t know what’s happening to his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So so sorry for the hiatus!! I shouldn't have taken AP Calculus I cri (i hope eagle boy's not too ooc the summary doesn't do much for that)
> 
> Tumblr: [violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com)|[hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com)
> 
> All of my chamber au posts are now going to be tagged with "hq!! chamber au" on tumblr, so if you have any thoughts or anything on it, use that tag and I'll see it <33
> 
> Next chapter will be quicker and longer, I promise (I'm veeeeeery excited for it and I hope I get it up by Saturday)


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yamaguchi could not have predicted that this would go so well.

Tadashi’s nervous.

Everyone’s told him not to be, that they'll handle this and he doesn't even have to say anything if he doesn't want to, but goddammit, he's nervous anyway. His heart’s starting to speed up beyond control, he's starting to feel a little lightheaded, and he can't stop thinking of what could go wrong.

What if Takeda wants him to say something about the quartet? What if Takeda doesn't let them perform it? What if someone abandons the project entirely because the music’s too hard to learn in such a short time? 

What if Takeda says yes and this actually happens?

He lets out a breath and keeps his eyes on the sunset as he walks. It's nice tonight, a perfect blend of colors and a cool breeze that goes through his shirt but isn't too cold. People are talking in the distance, outside practice rooms and by the lake, but he can barely hear them.

“Hey, Yamaguchi!” Kuroo shouts, reminding Tadashi that he's fallen behind everyone else. “You're coming, aren't you?”

“Yeah, sorry!” Tadashi jogs up and falls into step with everyone, somehow keeping up with their fast pace.

“Kuroo-san wouldn't shut up about this at dinner, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes,” Tsukishima whispers. 

“Yeah, but it's still a big deal,” Tadashi whispers back. “It'll feel like an hour.”

“It’ll be better than not doing it at all, won't it?”

Tadashi frowns. “I guess.”

“There's no -”

“What are you two whispering about?” Bokuto interrupts with a grin.

“None of your business,” Tsukishima replies with a scowl.

“Fine, be that way!” Bokuto defensively puts two hands up before breaking it off with a chuckle. “There's no need to be so tense, we've got it under control.” He looks over at Kuroo. “Right?”

“Of course,” Kuroo says. “We’ll be in and out of there in no time.”

Tadashi sure hopes so.

The camp office, drab and brown, is hidden behind the camp store. Tadashi’s only been here once, when he needed a band-aid two years ago, and even then he barely saw the place. He's never been in Takeda’s office in his life. Takeda isn't even close to scary, but Tadashi’s scared anyway.

This is a good thing, though, he tries to convince himself. He's finally putting his music out there. That's what he's wanted to do for years, and now it's right in front of him. 

Kuroo pushes a door open and leads the way up a flight of stairs to a landing, where he's faced with two more doors. He knocks on the one on the right and waits, everyone else waiting on the stairs behind him.

“Come in!” Takeda calls.

With one last grin, Kuroo pushes the door open and walks in, everyone else following him into the office. 

There isn't much in here. A desk and a filing cabinet are the only two large pieces of furniture. There's a laptop on the desk Takeda’s sitting at, along with a portable radio and a small lamp. It's the only source of light in the room - the overhead light is turned off - but it's bright enough.

“What can I help you four with?” Takeda asks from behind the desk, all smiles and warmth. “Is one of the rooms locked?”

“Not that I know of,” Kuroo says. “We have a...” He pauses for a second. “ _ Supplementary piece _ we've started working on, and we're wondering if we can fit it into the recital.”

“Oh?” Takeda’s eyebrows subtly shoot up. “What kind of supplementary piece would that be?”

Kuroo’s head whips around to face everyone else. “Who has the music?” He whispers.

Tadashi takes the folder from behind his back and sets it down on the desk, heart pounding in his chest. Takeda picks it up, opening it slowly and delicately, like he's looking at a work of art. 

“I accidentally found one of the pages on the ground a few days ago,” Kuroo explains. “So I asked Yamaguchi if he wanted to run through it, and we got everyone together and read it together Tuesday night. After that, we all loved playing it and wanted to try to perform it.”

Takeda takes one piece of paper out, presumably the first page of the score, and smiles. 

“I'm sure we can fit it in,” Takeda says. “After all, our entire goal is to encourage everyone’s musical pursuits, composition definitely included.” He gives Tadashi a look that clearly says he's impressed, but Tadashi wants to melt into the floor anyway. He's never been this embarrassed in his life. 

“Thank you -” Bokuto starts.

“But!” Takeda holds up a finger. “I hope you all realize the challenge you're taking on.” He looks through the pages. “With all your other pieces, you got the parts months ahead of time. You had time to practice, to ask your teachers, and to get everything polished before you got here. But this is different.” He looks everyone over. “You only have two and a half weeks to learn your own parts and to fit together as a quartet. On top of that, you'll be rehearsing entirely on your own time.” He looks down at the piece of paper in his hands. “I assume Kuroo-kun’s playing first violin?”

“Nope.” Kuroo grins in Tsukishima’s direction.

“Interesting.” Takeda’s focus moves to Tsukishima. “This part is pretty difficult, I hope you know that.”

Tsukishima nods. “I do.”

“And Bokuto-kun, your part is fairly complex as well.”

“I can work it out,” Bokuto responds.

“Well, if the four of you think you can get this performance-ready by recital day, I'd be happy to give you the spot.” Takeda looks them over again. “All of you are in the Mendelssohn, right? I could give you the finale.”

Tadashi feels his heart leapfrog into his throat. 

“Really?” Bokuto’s eyes are wide in excitement.

“You'll be up on stage already, right?” Takeda says. “I don't know if we've ever had an in-house composition performed here before, it's an honor.”

Tadashi can barely hear him.

“Thank you!” Kuroo helps put all the pages back in the folder before picking it up. 

“You're very welcome,” Takeda says. “I'm sure this is going to sound incredible.”

Bokuto leads everyone else out of the office and down the stairs, rushing to get to the door. Tadashi’s the last one to leave, shutting the door behind him and feeling the wind on his face. He can finally breathe again -

“Guys.” Kuroo looks at everyone else, suddenly all-business when he just looked like he was about to jump into Bokuto’s arms from sheer joy. “We can't tell  _ anyone _ about this.”

Tsukishima narrows his eyes. “Why?”

“It has to be a surprise!” Bokuto jumps in before Kuroo has a chance to answer. “Imagine how cool it would be if we keep this under wraps until recital day!”

It would be cool, but Tadashi would probably melt over all the attention everyone would give him before he could appreciate it.

“Who's up for a little rehearsal before bed?” Kuroo asks with a grin. “I need to work this off.”

No one says anything, and for a second, it seems like everyone’s in favor.

“I can't,” Tsukishima says hesitantly. 

“Aw, why not?” Bokuto pouts. 

“It's the part, isn't it?” Kuroo doesn't even phrase it like a question, he just  _ knows _ . Tadashi makes a mental note to apologize later.

Tsukishima looks confused for a second before he slowly nods. “...Kind of.” He freezes. “Yeah. That's what it is.”

What's going on with him?

“If you say so.” Kuroo shrugs, starting to walk away from the office before he turns around. “What time do you want to rehearse tomorrow?”

“Right after Mendelssohn rehearsal?” Tadashi offers. They'd already be all together.

“Anyone have a problem with that?”

Bokuto shakes his head. Tsukishima doesn't say anything.

“Then it's a date,” Kuroo says with a wave as he starts walking again. “See you tomorrow!”

Bokuto quickly follows, leaving Tadashi and Tsukishima with an awkward silence a mile wide between them. 

“...Hey, Tsukki, is everything okay?” Tadashi asks.

“Yeah, why?” Tsukishima’s response is even more emotionless than usual.

“You're acting weird.” 

Tsukishima blinks, not changing his expression one bit. “I need to talk to you.”

“What?” Tadashi frowns. “You didn't answer my question, what's wrong?”

“Nothing, it's nothing, I’m  _ fine _ .” Tsukishima’s talking faster now. He looks nervous for some reason.

Tadashi knows that however hard he tries, he won't be able to get anything out of him. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“My quartet part, I -”

“Crap, is it too hard?” Of course it's too hard, that's exactly what Tadashi gets for trying to make it as high as he possibly can. “I can change it, it -”

“That isn't a problem,” Tsukishima says. “It's more about interpretation.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know I can’t phrase for shit until someone actually tells me what to do.”

“Uh-huh.” Tadashi giggles. They're practically opposites in that regard.

Wait.

“...You want me to do that with you.”

Tsukishima nods. “If you don't mind. If I have an opportunity to ask about composer interpretation directly -”

“Of course I don't mind!” Tadashi’s heart goes wild again.  _ He's  _ the subject of composer interpretation, it's  _ him _ , Tsukishima’s asking  _ him _ about how  _ he  _ wants it to sound. “Do you want to find a practice room or something?”

Tsukishima pauses for a second. “Do you think anyone else is going to be in our room?”

“Probably.” Tadashi smiles. “Why? Do you want to be alone?”

Tsukishima shrugs. He's still acting weird. “Let's just find a room.” 

“...Okay.” Tadashi nods, following Tsukishima down the path.

Every room in building C is taken. Tsukishima groans when he sees the sign on every door before walking to building A. 

The building is bustling with people, both outside and in the lobby. Tsukishima doesn't even check if any of the rooms are taken, he just walks on by.

Tadashi tries to figure out what he's doing. Maybe he just wants to be alone.

Building B is also entirely taken. Tadashi can see the signs on the doors before he even gets there.

“So we’re just going back to our room?” Tadashi asks.

“I guess so.”

“Okay.” 

It's quiet when Tsukishima opens the door to the cabin. The only person in the main room is Yaku, reading something while sprawled out on a couch. Tadashi doesn't know why he isn't in his room, but he can get past that.

As soon as they're back in their room, Tsukishima sits in his bottom bunk, leaving enough space for Tadashi to sit next to him. Tadashi opens the folder and takes out the first violin part, holding it up between them.

“So?” Tadashi asks. “What did you want to ask me about it?”

“What's the high point of the first solo?”

“Um...” Tadashi has so many things he wants to say, based on how he's imagined it, but he can't put any of them into words. “It's really up to interpretation, you can do whatever you think sounds right -”

“Yamaguchi.” Tsukishima looks him right in the eyes, almost like he's annoyed. “What do you want from it?”

“I -” Tadashi looks down at his hands as he anxiously taps his foot on the floor. What does he want? “Bring out the high B.” That’s obviously not  _ everything _ he wants to say, but it’s all he can.

Tsukishima nods, taking a pencil out of his back pocket and making a note in the part. “...I can mark up the part, right?”

“Oh, go ahead!” Tadashi’s surprised at how much Tsukishima cares about all this. It doesn’t seem like he could. “What else do you want to know?”

Tsukishima frowns. “This isn’t about anything in particular.”

“That’s okay.” Tadashi blinks. What’s going on with him? “Is it just about the piece in general?”

“Kind of.” Tsukishima’s voice is quiet now. Weirdly quiet. “Well, not really.”

“Okay, what’s going on?” Tadashi asks. “There’s something wrong and I have no idea what it is, but -”

“Nothing’s  _ wrong _ ,” Tsukishima says, obviously trying to cover something up. It only makes things more suspicious.

“Then what is it?”

“It's more that something's right.” Tsukishima looks down at the floor with a frown. His cheeks are pink, and Tadashi’s really starting to get worried. 

“What do you mean -”

He's stopped in his tracks when Tsukishima leans in and kisses him.

His eyes fly open wide as every thought running through his mind is just “oh fuck” over and over again and his heart is racing fast enough to set a world record probably and it makes whatever his heart rate was doing earlier seem like nothing in comparison and he can't focus on anything else, this is all he can think about, nothing else matters but his lips are probably chapped and ragged and the thought just occurs to him now that he forgot to bring chapstick which he really should have because the air here is so dry but Tsukishima’s are so soft and his thoughts jump right back to that and the fact that they're kissing and Tadashi has no idea why or what's happening and the only thing he can do is kiss back and the butterflies in his stomach are beating their wings so hard and his heart’s pounding in his chest and he doesn't feel like he's in a bottom bunk anymore, he feels like he's floating, like he's on top of the goddamn world and all the while Tsukishima’s just  _ there _ and he doesn't falter and he knows what he's doing and this would be so much nicer if Tadashi could stop freaking out and actually make this worthwhile on Tsukishima’s end but he can't and now he feels bad about it and-

“...I guess I'll just come back later.”

Tadashi sharply pulls away, breathing hard - he forgot to  _ breathe _ , how dumb is that? - only to see Yaku standing in the doorway. His eyes are wide, and he's already walking backwards to get out again.

“Um...” For once, even Tsukishima has nothing to say. His cheeks are bright red now, and somehow his hair got messed up during all this.

“Out of everyone here, I thought I could trust you two to have the decency to find a practice room,” Yaku says. 

Tadashi doesn't know if that's supposed to be a joke or not. 

“But -” Yaku shrugs - “At least it's me.”

Tsukishima scowls, obviously still embarrassed. “What are you talking about?”

“Imagine what would happen if Kuroo found you instead.” 

Tsukishima visibly shudders and Tadashi almost laughs. 

But Yaku’s right. Tadashi’s glad it's him and not anyone else. 

“Whatever. I'm only in here to get my charger.” Yaku walks across the room and digs around in his bag. “And now I'll be on my merry way. Have fun.” 

Yaku obviously tries to get out as quickly as possible, charger in hand. He slams the door when he leaves.

Everything’s silent for a second or two. Ten. Twenty. Thirty.

“So...” Tadashi knows he's rambling, but he’ll do anything to fill the silence, just because it's so  _ awkward _ . “Nice night, isn't it?”

When he looks out the window, it really is a nice night. The sun has almost set by now, but it's still poking up over the horizon. That's the best part of the sunset, the most colorful part. 

Tsukishima still doesn't say anything. They're clearly both dealing with their humiliation in different ways. 

“Um...” Tadashi trails off. He needs details, he can't just walk out of this without knowing why it happened, but how does he ask? Every time seems like the wrong time.

“...Sorry,” Tsukishima says, his voice low.

“For what?”

“What do you think?” Tsukishima’s voice bites at the ends of words, and it's right then that Tadashi realizes that he needs to say exactly what he's thinking -

“Please don't apologize.” It sounds so dumb, but that's all Tadashi can say. He's never been good at putting things into words. 

“What?”

“I don't want you to be sorry.” Tadashi’s voice is quiet now, making the room, the  _ world  _ seem that much bigger. “I just want to know why.”

It takes a long time for Tsukishima to say anything. “It's the quartet, it's the Smetana, I don't fucking know what it is but I -” His voice gets even faster, even quieter - “I  _ like  _ you and it's stupid and I'm sorry -”

“What?” Tadashi speaks tentatively, not sure if he actually heard what he just heard or if it was some stupid mistake.

“Forget it, forget I said any of it, forget I -”

“No, that's not it, I...” Tadashi’s breath catches in his throat, leaving him barely able to croak out the words. “I like you, too.”

Everything’s silent again and oh, hell, this is so awkward -

“You do?” Tsukishima’s barely audible, even when there's nothing else happening.

“Yeah.” Tadashi bobs his head up and down in a nod. “I do.”

Silence again. Tadashi doesn't want this, he just wants them to talk again like they did before -

“So you... liked that?” Tsukishima asks.

“Yeah.” Tadashi nods again. 

“So you would do it again?”

“...Are you asking me out?”

“I don't fucking know,” Tsukishima mutters.

“Because if you are, I would say yes -”

“ _ What?! _ ” 

That's the loudest Tsukishima’s been this whole time.

“Yeah.” Tadashi can't help but giggle now. 

“Holy shit.”

Tadashi only laughs harder. How is any of this happening?

“Why are you _ laughing _ ?” Tsukishima’s face is buried in his hands, his voice muffled.

“Because -” Is Tadashi going to say this? Yes, yes he is - “Because you're  _ cute _ , Tsukki.”

“I hate you.”

Tadashi can't stop himself from smiling at that.

His heart’s been racing since he was in Takeda’s office, but it feels so much better now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad I got this chapter up so quick because I'm probably going on hiatus again until after APs lmaoooo
> 
> It took me almost a year of writing this fic to get a kiss in there bless


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lev realizes something about the future and Akaashi lives through a miracle.

Lev jumps when the practice room door slams open. 

“Lev!”

Lev’s head whips around faster than he can register it happening. Yaku’s standing in the doorway, cello case on his back and a look of pure tranquil fury on his face. 

“Yaku-san -” Lev starts.

“Thank you for actually being in a practice room.”

Lev blinks. “You’re... welcome?”

Yaku plops down in a chair and doesn’t say anything else.

Kenma just keeps plunking away at the piano, obviously not trying to be involved with this if he can help it. He’s smart. 

“...Are you okay?” Lev asks.

“Fine.” Yaku smiles, but he doesn’t look happy at all. “I just need to play something as soon as possible, can I have an A  _ please _ ?”

Kenma jumps and plays an A, letting Yaku tune up. When he’s done, there’s a lot less tension in the room. All the better.

“What happened?” Kenma asks, like he doesn’t want to be the one to do it.

“I promised I wouldn’t say,” Yaku responds without missing a beat. 

Lev’s a little disappointed at that. He wants to know what’s making Yaku so mad, but if Yaku promised, he can’t exactly do anything about that. Promises are sacred. 

“Anyway.” Yaku pokes his stand with his bow. “Shostakovich.”

Lev gives a playful salute before looking at the music. 

Kenma starts playing and they’re off. Well, not  _ off _ , really, because the piece is so slow, but they’re playing. 

Lev still hangs behind Yaku in terms of technical skill, but that’s to be expected. Lev’s getting better, slowly but surely. He’s practicing, and his tone is getting a lot better. 

But Yaku is just so  _ good _ . His vibrato doesn’t seem unnatural like Lev’s is, and his bow placement is just about perfect, at least from Lev’s perspective. The music just flows out of him without any effort on his part. 

Lev has to focus. That’s the only way he can play this well. Because he doesn’t think he’ll be able to get to the point where he can just not think about it before the performance. 

There’s always next year for that.

But Yaku won’t be here next year. He always forgets that. 

Well, Yaku might be here. He could be a coach if he wanted to be, and Lev has no idea if he really wants that or not. And he might be off doing bigger and better things anyway. His talent could really get him anywhere.

Lev digs his bow into the string a little more, determined to make every second count.

* * *

Keiji notices that Lev’s been starting the Mendelssohn a lot faster than usual today. He doesn’t know why, but the tempo is at least three metronome clicks faster than every other rehearsal.

It doesn't seem like much, but it's enough to affect Bokuto. His coordination isn't as polished as it usually is, and he obviously notices. It gets more unhinged and less clean every time he plays the beginning. 

It takes four runthroughs of the first twenty-four measures before he snaps. 

Lev starts playing the opening sixteenth notes, the fastest they’ve been all day, and Keiji knows that this is the time Bokuto’s going to fall apart. He was barely able to keep up last time, and now it’s even faster than that - 

Bokuto comes in late, his E flat isn’t quite in tune, and he grimaces when he plays it. But he can’t stop now, Keiji can see that on his face, and he keeps going, only getting more and more behind as he plays. Yamaguchi jumps in as soon as he’s done - well, really, he jumps in before he’s done, when he should have come in the first place. He’s clearly counting, whispering the beats as Lev and Bokuto play, and he’s more than ready for his entrance.

Keiji wishes Bokuto was the same way. 

Yamaguchi stops halfway through his line, seeing what’s about to happen just as clearly as Keiji can, even though he can’t see Bokuto all that well. 

“Shit,” Bokuto whispers, thinking no one else can hear him. Everyone else can hear him.

“Can you handle this?” Tsukishima asks, whispering into Keiji’s ear.

Keiji nods with a sigh. He doesn’t want to, but he can. 

“Bokuto-san-” he begins.

“Don’t!” Bokuto whines. “That was horrible!”

Keiji can’t deny that Bokuto’s playing does have a dip in quality today, but he’s not going to tell him that. “It wasn’t. We’re rehearsing faster than we have been. You just haven’t been able to adjust.”

“I haven’t been able to adjust!” Bokuto repeats.

That was clearly not the thing Keiji should have said.

“Bokuto-san, you’re a great cellist!” Hinata tries doing his part. Thank goodness for that, it just might work.

“I’m not!”

This is proving to be a lot more difficult than it seems, and Keiji has no way of knowing how to deal with that.

Except maybe he does. 

“Bokuto-san,” Keiji says, reaching under his seat to grab something out of his case. “Take this.”

“Huh?” Bokuto takes Keiji’s tuner-slash-metronome  and inspects it, turning it over and over again in his hands. “But Akaashi, I already have one of these!”

“Use it.” Keiji look around at everyone else. “I’m sure no one would mind taking a few minutes to touch up on individual practice spots.”

No one says anything in protest, so Keiji assumes he’s right.

Bokuto nods, the big head bobby one he does when he really means it, and stands up, taking his cello and the metronome to a corner of the room. He looks determined to practice now, at least.

Keiji’s not quite sure how he did it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GODDAMN THIS TOOK A LONG TIME SORRY APS AND WRITERS BLOCK KICKED MY ASS I'M BACK NOW
> 
> Also this fic turned a year old during the hiatus, so thank you so much for sticking with me the whole time and for all the amazing feedback!! (6k hits are you kidding me i'm just being a huge nerd) Here's to another year (probably more considering my update schedule whoops)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at [hanwritesstuff](http://hanwritesstuff.tumblr.com) (writing blog) or [violist-yamaguchi](http://violist-yamaguchi.tumblr.com) (personal/fandom/everything else blog) so ask me any questions there or in the comments ~~( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)~~


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